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cas:  le  symbole  — ^  signifie  "A  SUIVRE",  le 
symbole  V  signifie  "FIN". 

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THE  WORLDS 
GREAT  CLASSICS 


(s 


Timothy  Dwighx  D.D.  LLD. 
Richard  Henry5toddard 
Arthvr  Richmond  Marsh.  AB. 
Pavlvan  Dyke.D.D. 
Albert  Ellery  Bergh  ^^ 

ITH.NFADIY  TNX'O-    yp:  V 


•ILLV5TRATED •  WITH- NEARLY  TWO- 
•HVNDREDPHOTOCRAVVRE5  •  ETCH= 
•INCS  COLOREDPLATE5AND  FVLL- 
•  PAGE- P0RTRAIT50F  GREAT- AVTH0R5  • 

Clarence  Cook    Art  Editor. 


*-,; 

o 


•the -COLONIAL- PRESS 

•  NEW-YORK  ^fe,  MDCCCXCIX 


'l^ax^^(^ca\(C^(G^rn^(ci^C(t^(c^Cii\fdhC^^ 


/ 


A/JSXIS  DR    TOCQUEVILLE. 

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i^(    JUN  18  1901  V-^ 


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ALEXIS  DE   TOCQUEVILLE 

(Translated  by  Henry  Reeve) 

WITH  SPECIAL  INTRODUCTIONS   BY 
HON.  JOHN   T.   MORGAN 

SENATOR   FROM  ALABAMA 
AND 

HON.   JOHN    J.   INGALLS,    LL.a 

EX-SENATOR   FROM   KANSAS 


REVISED  EDITION 


r>miixifim.\uism. 


lc 


I  DC.€^  IE  U/  J~l.£        n 


i 


CopvRinHT,  1899, 
Bv  THE  COLONIAL  PRKSS. 


SPECIAL  INTRODUCTION 

IN  the  eleven  years  that  separated  the  Declaration  of  the 
Independence  of  the  United  States  from  the  completion 
of  that  act  in  the  ordination  of  our  written  Constitution, 
the  great  minds  of  America  were  bent  upon  the  study  of  the 
principles  of  government  that  were  essential  to  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  liberties  which  had  been  won  at  great  cost  and  with 
heroic  labors  and  sacrifices.  Their  studies  were  conducted  in 
view  of  the  imperfections  that  experience  had  developed  in  the 
government  of  the  Confederation,  and  they  were,  therefore, 
practical  and  thorough. 

When  the  Constitution  was  thus  perfected  and  established, 
a  new  form  of  government  was  created,  but  it  was  neither  spec- 
ulative nor  experimental  as  to  the  principles  on  which  it  was 
based.  If  they  were  true  principles,  as  they  were,  the  govern- 
ment founded  upon  them  was  destined  to  a  life  and  an  influence 
that  would  continue  while  the  liberties  it  was  intended  to  pre- 
serve should  be  valued  by  the  human  family.  Those  liberties 
had  been  wrung  from  reluctant  monarchs  in  many  contests,  in 
many  countries,  and  were  grouped  into  creeds  and  established  in 
ordinances  sealed  with  blood,  in  many  great  struggles  of  the 
people.  They  were  not  new  to  the  people.  They  were  conse- 
crated theories,  but  no  government  had  been  previously  estab- 
lished for  the  great  purpose  of  their  preservation  and  enforce- 
ment. That  which  was  experimental  in  our  plan  of  govern- 
ment was  the  question  whether  democratic  rule  could  be  so 
organizcil  and  conducted  that  it  would  not  degenerate  into  li- 
cense and  result  in  the  tyranny  of  absolutism,  without  saving 
to  the  people  the  power  so  often  found  necessary  of  repressing 
or  destroying  their  enemy,  when  he  was  found  in  the  person  of 
a  single  despot. 

When,  in  1831,  Alexis  de  Tocqueville  came  to  study  Democ- 
racy in  America,  the  trial  of  nearly  a  half-century  of  the  work- 

iii 


■li«lW»n 


IV 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


ing  of  our  system  had  been  made,  and  it  had  been  proved,  by 
many  crucial  tests,  to  be  a  government  of  "  liberty  regulated  by 
law,"  with  such  results  in  the  development  of  strength,  in  popu- 
lation, wealth,  and  military  and  commercial  power,  as  no  age 
had  ever  witnessed. 

De  Tocqueville  had  a  special  inquiry  to  prosecute,  in  his 
visit  to  America,  in  which  his  generous  and  faithful  soul  and 
the  powers  of  his  great  intellect  were  engaged  in  the  patriotic 
effort  to  secure  to  the  people  of  France  the  blessings  that  De- 
mocracy in  America  had  ordained  and  established  throughout 
nearly  the  entire  Western  Hemisphere.  He  had  read  the  story 
of  the  French  Revolution,  much  of  which  had  been  recently 
written  in  the  blood  of  men  and  women  of  great  distinction 
who  were  his  progenitors;  and  had  witnessed  the  agitations 
and  terrors  of  the  Restoration  and  of  the  Second  Republic, 
fruitful  in  crime  and  sacrifice,  and  barren  of  any  good  to 
mankind. 

He  had  just  witnessed  the  sprcLd  of  republican  government 
through  all  the  vast  continental  possessions  of  Spain  in  Amer- 
ica, and  the  loss  of  her  great  colonies.  He  had  seen  that  these 
revolutions  were  accomplished  almost  without  the  shedding  of 
blood,  and  he  was  filled  with  anxiety  to  learn  the  causes  that 
had  placed  republican  government,  in  France,  in  such  contrast 
with  Democracy  in  America. 

De  Tocqueville  was  scarcely  thirty  years  old  when  he  began 
his  studies  of  Democracy  in  America.  It  was  a  bold  effort  for 
one  who  had  no  special  training  in  government,  or  in  the  study 
of  political  economy,  but  he  had  the  example  of  Lafayette  in 
establishing  the  military  foundation  of  these  liberties,  and  of 
Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison,  and  Hamilton,  all  of  whom 
were  young  men,  in  building  upon  the  Independence  of  the 
United  States  that  wisest  and  best  plan  of  general  govern- 
ment that  was  ever  devised  for  a  free  people. 

He  found  that  the  American  people,  through  their  chosen 
representatives  who  were  instructed  by  their  wisdom  and  ex- 
perience and  were  supported  by  their  virtues — cultivated,  puri- 
fied and  ennobled  by  self-reliance  and  the  love  of  God — had 
matured,  in  the  excellent  wisdom  of  their  counsels,  a  new  plan 
of  government,  which  embraced  every  security  for  their  liber- 
ties and  equal  rights  and  privileges  to  all  in  the  pursuit  of 
happiness.    He  came  as  an  honest  and  impartial  student  and 


SPECIAL  INTRODUCTION 


his  great  commentary,  like  those  of  Paul,  was  written  for  the 
benefit  of  all  nations  and  people  and  in  vindication  of  truths 
that  will  stand  for  their  deliverance  from  monarchical  rule, 
while  time  shall  last. 

A  French  aristocrat  of  the  purest  strain  of  blood  and  of  the 
most  honorable  lineage,  whose  family  influence  was  coveted 
by  crowned  heads ;  who  had  no  quarrel  with  the  rulers  of  the 
nation,  and  was  secure  against  want  by  his  inherited  estates; 
was  moved  by  the  agitations  that  compelled  France  to  attempt 
to  grasp  suddenly  the  liberties  and  happiness  we  had  gained  in 
our  revolution  and,  by  his  devout  love  of  France,  to  search  out 
and  subject  to  the  test  of  reason  the  basic  principles  of  free 
government  that  had  been  embodied  in  our  Constitution.  This 
was  the  mission  of  De  Tocqueville,  and  no  mission  was  ever 
more  honorably  or  justly  conducted,  or  concluded  with  greater 
eclat,  or  better  results  for  the  welfare  of  mankind. 

His  researches  were  logical  and  exhaustive.  They  included 
every  phase  of  every  question  that  then  seemed  to  be  apposite 
to  the  great  inquiry  he  was  making. 

The  judgment  of  all  who  have  studied  his  commentaries 
seems  to  have  been  unanimous,  that  his  talents  and  learning 
were  fully  equal  to  his  task.  He  began  with  the  physical  geog- 
raphy of  this  country,  and  examined  the  characteristics  of  the 
people,  of  all  races  and  conditions,  their  social  and  religious  sen- 
timents, their  education  and  tastes ;  their  industries,  their  com- 
merce, their  local  governments,  their  passions  and  prejudices, 
and  their  ethics  and  literature ;  leaving  nothing  unnoticed  that 
might  afford  an  argument  to  prove  that  our  plan  and  form  of 
government  was  or  was  not  adapted  especially  to  a  peculiar 
people,  or  that  it  would  be  impracticable  in  any  different  coun- 
try, or  among  any  different  people. 

The  pride  and  comfort  that  the  American  people  enjoy  in  the 
great  commentaries  of  De  Tocqueville  are  far  removed  from  the 
selfish  adulation  that  comes  from  a  great  and  singular  success. 
It  is  the  consciousness  of  victory  over  a  false  theory  of  govern- 
ment which  has  aflfilicted  mankind  for  many  ages,  that  gives 
joy  to  the  true  American,  as  it  did  to  De  Tocqueville  in  his 
great  triumph. 

When  De  Tocqueville  wrote,  we  had  lived  less  than  fifty 
years  under  our  Constitution.  In  that  time  no  great  national 
commotion  had  occurred  that  tested  its  strength,  or  its  power 


^ 


VI 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


of  resistance  to  internal  strife,  such  as  had  converted  his  be- 
loved P'rance  into  fields  of  slaughter  torn  by  tempests  of  wrath. 

He  had  a  strong  conviction  that  no  government  could  be 
ordained  that  could  resist  these  internal  forces,  when,  they  are 
directed  to  its  destruction  by  bad  men,  or  unreasoning  mobs, 
and  many  then  believed,  as  some  yet  believe,  that  our  govern- 
ment is  unequal  to  such  pressure,  when  the  assault  is  thor- 
oughly desperate. 

Had  De  Tocqueville  lived  to  examine  the  history  of  the 
United  States  from  i860  to  1870,  his  misgivings  as  to  this 
power  of  self-preservation  would,  probably,  have  been  cleared 
off.  He  would  have  seen  that,  at  the  end  of  the  most  de- 
structive civil  war  that  ever  occurred,  when  animosities  of  the 
bitterest  sort  had  banished  all  good  feeling  from  the  hearts  of 
our  people,  the  States  of  the  American  Union,  still  in  complete 
organization  and  equipped  with  all  their  official  entourage, 
aligned  themselves  in  their  places  and  took  up  the  powers  and 
duties  of  local  government  in  perfect  order  and  without  em- 
barrassment. This  would  have  dispelled  his  apprehensions, 
if  he  had  any,  about  the  power  of  the  United  States  to  with- 
stand the  severest  shocks  of  civil  war.  Could  he  have,  traced 
the  further  course  of  events  until  they  open  the  portals  of  the 
twentieth  century,  he  would  have  cast  away  his  fears  of  our 
ability  to  restore  peace,  order,  and  prosperity,  in  the  face  of  any 
difficulties,  and  would  have  rejoiced  to  find  in  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  the  remedy  that  is  provided  for  the  healing 
of  the  nation. 

De  Tocqueville  examined,  with  the  care  that  is  worthy  the 
importance  of  the  subject,  the  nature  and  value  of  the  system 
of  "  local  self-government,"  as  we  style  this  most  important 
feature  of  our  plan,  and  (as  has  often  happened)  when  this 
or  any  subject  has  become  a  matter  of  anxious  concern,  his 
treatment  of  the  questions  is  found  to  have  been  masterly  and 
his  preconceptions  almost  prophetic. 

We  are  frequently  indebted  to  him  for  able  expositions  and 
true  doctrines  relating  to  subjects  that  have  slumbered  in  the 
minds  of  the  people  until  they  were  suddenly  forced  on  our  at- 
tention by  unexpected  events. 

In  his  introductory  chapter,  M.  De  Toci  'eville  says: 
"  Amongst  the  novel  objects  that  attracted  my  atu  ntion  during 
my  stay  in  the  United  States,  nothing  struck  me  more  forcibly 


SPECIAL  INTRODUCTION 


vii 


than  the  general  equaUty  of  conditions."  He  referred,  doubt- 
less, to  social  and  political  conditions  among  the  people  of  the 
white  race,  who  are  described  as  "  We,  the  people,"  in  the  open- 
ing sentence  of  the  Constitution.  The  last  three  amendments 
of  the  Constitution  have  so  changed  this,  that  those  who  were 
then  negro  slaves  are  clothed  with  the  rights  of  citizenship, 
including  the  right  of  suffrage.  This  was  a  political  party 
movement,  intended  to  be  radical  and  revolutionary,  but  it 
will,  ultimately,  react  because  it  has  not  the  sanction  of  public 
opinion. 

If  M.  De  Tocqueville  could  now  search  for  a  law  that  would 
negative  this  provision  in  its  effect  upon  social  equality,  he 
would  fail  to  find  it.  But  he  would  find  it  in  the  unwritten  law 
of  the  natural  aversion  of  the  races.  He  would  find  it  in  public 
opinion,  which  is  the  vital  force  in  every  law  in  a  free  govern- 
ment. This  is  a  subject  that  our  Constitution  failed  to  regulate, 
because  it  was  not  contemplated  by  its  authors.  It  is  a  question 
that  will  settle  itself,  without  serious  difficulty.  The  equality 
in  the  suffrage,  thus  guaranteed  to  the  negro  race,  alone — 
for  it  was  not  intended  to  include  other  colored  races — creates 
a  new  phase  of  political  conditions  that  M.  De  Tocqueville  could 
not  foresee.  Yet,  in  his  commendation  of  the  local  town  and 
county  governments,  he  applauds  and  sustains  that  elementary 
feature  of  our  political  organization  which,  in  the  end,  will 
render  harmless  this  wide  departure  from  the  original  plan 
and  purpose  of  American  Democracy.  "  Local  Self-Govem- 
ment,"  independent  of  general  control,  except  for  general  pur- 
poses, is  the  root  and  origin  of  all  free  republican  government, 
and  is  the  antagonist  of  all  great  political  combinations  that 
threaten  the  rights  of  minorities.  It  is  the  public  opinion 
formed  in  the  independent  expressions  of  tOAvns  and  other 
small  civil  districts  that  is  the  real  conservatism  of  free  gov- 
ernment. It  is  equally  the  enemy  of  that  dangerous  evil,  the 
corruption  of  the  ballot-box,  from  which  it  is  now  apprehended 
that  one  of  our  greatest  troubles  is  to  arise. 

The  voter  is  selected,  under  our  laws,  because  he  has  cer- 
tain physical  qualifications — ^age  and  sex.  His  disqualifications, 
when  any  are  imposed,  relate  to  his  education  or  property, 
and  to  the  fact  that  he  has  not  been  convicted  of  crime.  Of 
all  men  he  should  be  most  directly  amenable  to  public  opinion. 

The  test  of  moral  character  and  devotion  to  the  duties  of 


vl 


•  •• 

VIU 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


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good  citizenship  are  ignored  in  the  laws,  because  the  courts  can 
seldom  deal  with  such  questions  in  a  uniform  and  satisfactory 
way,  under  rules  that  apply  alike  to  all.  Thus  the  voter,  se- 
lected by  law  to  represent  himself  and  four  other  non-voting 
citizens,  is  often  a  person  who  is  unfit  for  any  public  duty  or 
trust.  In  a  town  government,  having  a  small  area  of  jurisdic- 
tion, where  the  voice  of  the  majority  of  qualified  voters  is 
conclusive,  the  fitness  of  the  person  who  is  to  exercise  that 
high  representative  privilege  can  be  determined  by  his  neigh- 
bors and  acquaintances,  and,  in  the  great  majority  of  cases, 
it  will  be  decided  honestly  and  for  the  good  of  the  country.  In 
such  meetings,  there  is  always  a  spirit  of  loyalty  to  the  State, 
because  that  is  loyalty  to  the  people,  and  a  reverence  for 
God  that  gives  weight  to  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of 
citizenship. 

M.  De  Tocqueville  found  in  these  minor  local  jurisdictions 
the  theoretical  conservatism  which,  in  the  aggregate,  is  the 
safest  reliance  of  the  State.  So  we  have  found  them,  in 
practice,  the  true  protectors  of  the  purity  of  the  ballot,  without 
which  all  free  government  will  degenerate  into  absolutism. 

In  the  future  of  the  Republic,  we  must  encounter  many  diffi- 
cult and  dangerous  situations,  but  the  principles  established 
in  the  Constitution  and  the  check  upon  hasty  or  inconsiderate 
legislation,  and  upon  executive  action,  and  the  supreme  arbitra- 
ment of  the  courts,  will  be  found  sufficient  for  the  safety  of 
personal  rights,  and  for  the  safety  of  the  government,  and  the 
prophetic  outlook  of  M.  De  Tocqueville  will  be  fully  realized 
through  the  influence  of  Democracy  in  America.  Each  suc- 
ceeding generation  of  Americans  will  find  in  the  pure  and  im- 
partial reflections  of  De  Tocqueville  a  new  source  of  pride  in 
our  institutions  of  government,  and  sound  reasons  for  patriotic 
effort  to  preserve  them  and  to  inculcate  their  teachings.  They 
have  mastered  the  power  of  monarchical  rule  in  the  American 
Hemisphere,  freeing  religion  from  all  shackles,  and  will  spread, 
by  a  quiet  but  resistless  influence,  through  the  islands  of  the 
seas  to  other  lands,  where  the  appeals  of  De  Tocqueville  for 
human  rights  and  liberties  have  already  inspired  the  souls  of 
the  people. 


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SPECIAL    INTRODUCTION 


NEARLY  two-thirds  of  a  century  has  elapsed  since  the 
appearance  of  "  Democracy  in  America,"  by  Alexis 
Charles  Henri  Clerel  de  Tocqueville,  a  French  noble- 
man, born  at  Paris,  July  29,  1805. 

Bred  to  the  law,  he  exhibited  an  early  predilection  for 
philosophy  and  political  economy,  and  at  twenty-two  was 
appointed  judge-auditor  at  the  tribunal  of  Versailles. 

In  183 1,  commissioned  ostensibly  to  investigate  the  peni- 
tentiary system  of  the  United  States,  he  visited  this  country, 
with  his  friend,  Gustave  de  Beaumont,  travelling  extensively 
through  those  parts  of  the  Republic  then  subdued  to  settle- 
ment, studying  the  methods  of  local.  State,  and  national  ad- 
ministration, and  observing  the  manners  and  habits,  the  daily 
life,  the  business,  the  industries  and  occupations  of  the  people. 

"  Democracy  in  America,"  the  first  of  four  volumes  upon 
"American  Institutions  and  their  Influence,"  was  published 
in  1835.  It  was  received  at  once  by  the  scholars  and  thinkers 
of  Europe  as  a  profound,  impartial,  and  entertaining  exposi- 
tion of  the  principles  of  popular,  representative  self-govern- 
ment. 

Napoleon,  "  the  mighty  somnambulist  of  a  vanished  dream," 
had  abolished  feudalism  and  absolutism,  made  monarchs  and 
dynasties  obsolete,  and  substituted  for  the  divine  right  of 
kings  the  sovereignty  of  the  people. 

Although  by  birth  and  sympathies  an  aristocrat,  M.  de 
Tocqueville  saw  that  the  reign  of  tradition  and  privilege  at 
last  was  ended.  He  perceived  that  civilization,  after  many 
bloody  centuries,  had  entered  a  new  epoch.  He  beheld,  and 
deplored,  the  excesses  that  had  attended  the  genesis  of  the 
democratic  spirit  in  France,  and  while  he  loved  liberty,  he 
detested  the  crimes  that  had  been  committed  in  its  name.  Be- 
longing neither  to  the  class  which  regarded  the  social  revolu- 


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tion  as  an  innovation  to  be  resisted,  nor  to  that  which  con- 
sidered political  equality  the  universal  panacea  for  the  evils 
of  humanity,  he  resolved  by  personal  observation  of  the  re- 
sults of  democracy  in  the  New  World  to  ascertain  its  natural 
consequences,  and  to  learn  what  the  nations  of  Europe  had  to 
hope  or  fear  from  its  final  supremacy. 

That  a  youth  of  twenty-six  should  entertain  a  design  so 
broad  and  bold  implies  singular  intellectual  intrepidity.  He 
had  neither  model  nor  precedent.  The  vastness  and  novelty 
of  the  undertaking  increase  admiration  for  the  remarkable 
ability  with  which  the  task  was  performed. 

Were  literary  excellence  the  sole  claim  of  "  Democracy  in 
America  "  to  distinction,  the  splendor  of  its  composition  alone 
would  entitle  it  to  high  place  among  the  masterpieces  of  the 
century.  The  first  chapter,  upon  the  exterior  form  of  North 
America,  as  the  theatre  upon  which  the  great  drama  is  to  be 
enacted,  for  graphic  and  picturesque  description  of  the  physical 
characteristics  of  the  continent  is  not  surpassed  in  literature: 
nor  is  there  any  subdivision  of  the  work  in  which  the  severest 
philosophy  is  not  invested  with  the  grace  of  poetry,  and  the 
driest  statistics  with  the  charm  of  romance.  Western  emigra- 
tion seemed  commonplace  and  prosaic  till  M.  de  Tocqueville 
said,  "  This  gradual  and  continuous  progress  of  the  European 
race  toward  the  Rocky  Mountains  has  the  solemnity  of  a 
providential  event;  it  is  like  a  deluge  of  men  rising  un- 
abatedly,  and  daily  driven  onward  by  the  hand  of  God !  " 

The  mind  of  M.  de  Tocqueville  had  the  candor  of  the  photo- 
graphic camera.  It  recorded  impressions  with  the  impartiality 
of  nature.  The  image  was  sometimes  distorted,  and  the 
perspective  was  not  always  true,  but  he  was  neither  a  pane- 
gyrist, nor  an  advocate,  nor  a  critic.  He  observed  American 
phenomena  as  illustrations,  not  as  proof  nor  arguments;  and 
although  it  is  apparent  that  the  tendency  of  his  mind  was  not 
wholly  favorable  to  the  democratic  principle,  yet  those  who 
dissent  from  his  conclusions  must  commend  the  ability  and 
courage  with  which  they  are  expressed. 

Though  not  originally  written  for  Americans,  "  Democracy 
in  America  "  must  always  remain  a  work  of  engrossing  and 
constantly  increasing  interest  to  citizens  of  the  United  States 
as  the  first  philosophic  and  comprehensive  view  of  our  so- 
ciety, institutions,  and  destiny.    No  one  can  rise  even  from 


SPECIAL  INTRODUCTION 


XI 


the  most  cursory  perusal  without  clearer  insight  and  more 
patriotic  appreciation  of  the  blessings  of  liberty  protected  by 
law,  nor  without  encouragement  for  the  stability  and  per- 
petuity of  the  Republic.  The  causes  which  appeared  to  M. 
de  Tocqueville  to  menace  both,  have  gone.  The  despotism  of 
public  opinion,  the  tyranny  of  majorities,  the  absence  of  in- 
tellectual freedom  which  seemed  to  him  to  degrade  adminis- 
tration and  bring  statesmanship,  learning,  and  literature  to 
the  level  of  the  lowest,  are  no  longer  considered.  The  violence 
of  party  spirit  has  been  mitigated,  and  the  judgment  of  the 
wise  is  not  subordinated  to  the  prejudices  of  the  ignorant. 

Other  dangers  have  come.  Equality  of  conditions  no  longer 
exists.  Prophets  of  evil  predict  the  downfall  of  democracy, 
but  the  student  of  M.  de  Tocqueville  will  find  consolation 
and  encouragement  in  the  reflection  that  the  same  spirit  which 
has  vanquished  the  perils  of  the  past,  which  he  foresaw,  will 
be  equally  prepared  for  the  responsibilities  of  the  present  and 
the  future. 

The  last  of  the  four  volumes  of  M.  de  Tocqueville's  work 
upon  American  institutions  appeared  in  1840. 

In  1838  he  was  chosen  member  of  the  Academy  of  Moral 
and  Political  Sciences.  In  1839  he  was  elected  to  the  Chamber 
of  Deputies.  He  became  a  member  of  the  French  Academy 
in  1841. 

In  1848  he  was  in  the  Assembly,  and  from  June  2nd  to  Oc- 
tober 31st  he  was  Minister  of  Foreign  Affairs.  The  coup  d'etat 
of  December  2,  185 1  drove  him  from  the  public  service.  In 
1856  he  published  "The  Old  Regime  and  the  Revolution." 
He  died  at  Cannes,  April  15,  1859,  at  the  age  of  fifty-four. 


5^€^«^*^ 


J^^^iM- 


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I 


CONTENTS 

99 

THE   FIRST   PART 

PACK 

Introductory  chapter  3 

CHAPTER  I 
Exterior  form  of  North  America 17 

CHAPTER  n 

Origin  of  the  Anglo-Americans,  and  its  importance  in  relation  to 

their  future  condition 26 

Reasons  of  certain  anomalies  which  the  laws  and  customs  of 
the  Anglo-Americans  present 43 

CHAPTER  HI 

Social  condition  of  the  Anglo-Americans 46 

The  striking  characteristic  of  the  social  condition  of  the  Anglo- 

Americann  is  its  essential  democracy 46 

Political  consequences  of  the  social  condition  of  the  Anglo- 
Americans  S3 

CHAPTER  IV 
The  principle  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  in  America 55 

CHAPTER  V 

Necessity  of  examining  the  condition  of  the  States  before  that  of 

the  Union  at  large 58 

The  American  system  of  townships  and  municipal  bodies 59 

Limits  of  the  township 61 

Authorities  of  the  township  in  New  England 61 

Existence  of  the  township 63 

Public  spirit  of  the  townships  of  New  England 65 

The  counties  of  New  England 68 

Administration  in  New  England 69 

General  remarks  on  the  administration  of  the  United  States ...  77 

Of  the  State  81 

xiii 


,1 


Xiv  hl<.   KKUUIsVII.I.I'. 

LriiiNlitllvr  iinwrr  of  llic  Slati' ..,,, ,,,,.  Hi 

'lilt'  rmrillivr  piiwt'l  ii(  ||i«<  SliiU- H,\ 

J'dlilit'iil  t'lfi'dt  m(  (lie  NyNlnii  n(  Itu-iil  itiliiiiiii>t|niliiiii   in  Ili«< 

UiiikHl  SlulcN  84 

CIIAITI'U  VI 

Jit«lt«'litl  |i(iw«'i'  ill  llio  UiiilrtI  SliUcN,  ami  iU  iiill^U'iUT  mi  iMililical 

Mitt  icly    i/i 

Oilier  iiowcrN  Hriiiiloil  In  Aiiiciit'iiii  JiiiIkc'* 101 

IIIAI'II'.U    VII 

Polilicill    Jllli!(«llclillll    III    llU<    dllilCll    SllllOH Il).t 

t'llAI'TKU    VIII 

'I'lio  I'Vtlcriil  I'onsliMilinii 1  ki 

llisloiy  of  llic   I'Vilt'i'til  ('oiiNliliiliiMi no 

Siniiiiiuiy  of  tlio  I'VtInal  (oiiMlilnlion ,  uj 

l'ivio)(i«tivi<  of  llu'  I'Vilnal  (iovcninu'iil 1  ij 

l'\'<lrrttl   |>owoi?«    115 

I.CItisllklivC   (tOWCIN    \\\, 

A  fiiillici  ililTnriKT  hclwccii  (lie  Sciialc  aiul  llii'  lioiisc  «»(  K«'p 

iTsoiitrtlivcs   I  iH 

Tlio  cxcoiUivc   v»»w»r 1 K) 

DitToiTiUTs  liolwiHMi  (lie  position  of  (lu<  I'lcsiiK'iil  of  llu<  UiiiU-d 

StuloN  aiitl  lliiit  of  a  C'oiistiliitioiial  KIiik  of  iMaiuc 1  ji 

Awiilctital  caiisrs  wtiicli  may  iiu'ioasc  tlio  iiilliicitcc  «i(  tlic  l<'x- 

tvntivo  (ioviMiiiiU'iil   I j.| 

Why  tlio  I'losiiloiit  of  tho  UiiitotI  Statos  «Iooh  not  roqniro  llio 

iiiitjoiity  of  tlio  two  IloiiKOH  in  «)nlor  to  carry  on  tlio  (iovorn 

IllOIlt     Uf, 

Ivtoctioii  t»f  tlio  I'rositlonI tj() 

Moilo  of  olootioii i,<o 

iVisis  of  (lio  olootion i.y 

Ro  oUvtion  of  tlio  Prosiilont i.»s 

I'Vdoral  courts   1,^7 

Moans  of  tlotonnininn  tlio  {iiris«tiction  of  the  I'otloral  ct>iirts. ., .   141 

DitToront  cases  of  inris«tiction 14J 

l*rocoilnro  of  tho  I'V«loral  courts 14(1 

llinh  rank  of  tho  Supremo  Court  anuHiRst  tho  mroat  powers 

of  State   141) 

In  what  respects  the  Fe«leral  Constitution  is  superior  to  that 

of  the  States 151 

Characteristics  which  (listiuRuish  t!io  I'Vderal  Constitution  of 

the  I'nited  States  of  America  from  all  other  I'Vtleral  Ci>n- 

stitutions    155 

Ailvantages  of  the  Federal  system  in  K^^iteral,  ami  its  special 

utility  in  America  158 

Why  tlie  Foilcral  system  is  not  ada|>le»l  to  all  peoples,  ami  how 

the  Anglo- Americans  were  onablcil  to  adopt  it 164 


CONTENTS 


XV 


CHAI'TKk   IX 

fAOII 

Wliy  llir  pniplc  limy  Htriclly  Iw  Niiid  lo  Knvcrri  in  tht  Uiiilcil  SuttH.   173 

CHAI'TKK    X 

I'arlii'H  ill  llir  I liijicd  SIiiIi-h 174 

Ui-iiiiiiii>4  of  ihf  ariKlocrulic  piiriy  in  the  United  SttttcH 17<> 

CIIAI'TICk   XI 
l.ilicriy  of  llitr  preNn  in  the  United  StalcH iKi 

CIIAI'TKU    XII                    .. 
l*otilirid  nsHocinlionH  in  the  United  StutcH lyi 

CIIAl'IKK    XIII 

(ioveriiiiient  of  the  deiiioeruey  in  Atiieriea m)i> 

I IniverHal   siilTiiiKe    aoo 

Choice  of  (he  peopK",  and  iiisliiu-tive  prefereiieeH  r)f  (he  Aincri- 

cnii  denioeraey   ;joi 

Causes  which  may  partly  correct  these  tendencies  of  the  «le- 

iiiocracy  204 

Inlliience  which  the  American  <leinocracy  has  exercised  on  the 

laws  relatiiiK  to  electioiiH 207 

IMililic  ollicers  im<ler  the  control  of  the  <lemocracy  in  America. .  joij 
Arliitrary   power   of   the   inagistratCH   under   the   rule   of   the 

American  democracy  2H 

Instability  of  the  administration  in  the  United  States 213 

CliarKcs  levied  by  the  State  under  the  rule  of  the  American 

democracy    215 

Tendencies  of  the  American  «lemocracy  as  regards  the  salaries 

of  public  officers 219 

Difliculty  of  distinguishinR  the  causes  which  contribute  to  the 

economy  of  the  American  Government 221 

Whether  the  expenditure  of  the  United  States  can  be  compared 

to  (hat  of  Franco 222 

Corruption  and  vices  of  the  rulers  in  a  democracy,  and  con- 

se(pient  effects  upf)n  public  morality 227 

Efforts  of  which  a  democracy  is  capable 229 

Self-control  of  the  American  democracy 232 

Conduct  of  foreign  affairs  by  the  American  democracy 235 

CHAPTER  XIV 

What  the  real  advantages  arc  which  American  society  derives  from 

the  government  of  the  democracy 240 

(jcneral  tendency  of  the  laws  under  the  rule  of  the  American 
democracy,  and  habits  of  those  who  apply  them 240 


11 


miKvesiHsaa 


xvi  DE  TOCQUEVILLE 

rAOB 

Public  spirit  in  the  United  States 34s 

Notion  of  rights  in  the  United  States 348 

Respect  fur  the  law  in  the  United  States aji 

Activity  which  pervades  all  the  brandies  of  the  body  politic  in 
the  United  States;  inlUicncc  which  it  exercises  upon  society. .  253 

CHAPTER  XV 

Unlimited  power  of  the  majority  m  the  United  States,  and  its  con- 
sequences    258 

How  the  unlimited  power  of  the  majority  increases  in  America 
the  instability  of  legislation  and  administration  inherent  in 

democracy    261 

Tyranny  of  the  majority 263 

Effects  of  the  unlimited  power  of  the  majority  upon  the  ar- 
bitrary authority  of  the  American  public  officers 266 

Power  exercised  by  the  majority  in  America  upon  opinion 267 

Effects  of  the  tyranny  of  the  majority  upon  the  national  char- 
acter of  the  Americans 270 

The  greatest  dangers  of  the  American  republics  proceed  from 
the  unlimited  power  of  the  majority 273 

CHAPTER  XVI 

Causes  which  mitigate  the  tyranny  of  the  majority  in  the  United 

States   275 

Absence  of  central  administration 275 

The  profession  of  the  law  in  the  United  States  serves  to  coun- 
terpoise the  democracy 277 

Trial  by  jury  in  the  United  States  considered  as  a  political  insti- 
tution      285 

CHAPTER  XVn 

Principal  causes  which  tend  to  maintain  the  democratic  republic  in 
the  United  States 292 

Accidental  or  providential  causes  which  contribute  to  the  main- 
tenance of  the  democratic  republic  in  the  United  States 292 

Influence  of  the  laws  upon  the  maintenance  of  the  democratic 
republic  in  the  United  States 303 

Influence  of  manners  upon  the  maintenance  of  the  democratic 
republic  in  the  United  States 304 

Religion  considered  as  a  political  institution  which  powerfully 
contributes  to  the  maintenance  of  the  democratic  republic 
amongst  the  Americans 304 

Indirect  influence  of  religious  opinions  upon  political  society  in 
the  United  States 308 

Principal  causes  which  render  religion  powerful  in  America 313 

How  the  instruction,  the  habits,  and  the  practical  experience  of 
the  Americans  promote  the  success  of  their  democratic  insti- 
tutions    320 


IK 


CONTENTS 


XVIl 


The  laws  contribute  more  to  the  maintenance  of  the  democratic 
republic  in  the  United  States  than  the  physical  circumstance!! 
of  the  country,    ikI  the  manners  more  than  the  laws 324 

Whether  laws  an«l  manners  arc  sufficient  to  maintain  demo- 
cratic institutions  in  other  countries  besides  America JJ19 

Importance  of  what  precedes  with  respect  to  the  state  of  Europe  33J 

CHAi'  rr.R  xvui 

The  present  and  probable  future  conditiufi  ni  the  three  races  which 
inhabit  the  territory  of  the  United  States 337 

The  present  and  probable  future  condition  of  the  Indian  tribes 
which  inhabit  the  territory  possessed  by  the  Union 343 

Situation  of  the  black  population  in  the  United  States,  and  dan- 
gers with  which  its  presence  threatens  the  whites 361 

What  arc  the  chances  in  favor  of  the  duration  of  the  American 
Union,  and  what  dangers  threaten  it 387 

Of  the  republican  institutions  of  the  United  States,  and  what 
their  chances  of  duration  are 422 

Reflection  on  the  causes  of  the  commercial  prosperity  of  the 
United  States 438 

Conclusion  of  the  First  Part 436 


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54 


Alexis  de  Tocqueville     .... 
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I 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


FIRST  PART 


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INTRODUCTORY  CHAPTER 


AMONGST  the  novel  objects  that  attracted  my  attention 
during  my  stay  in  the  United  States,  nothing  struck 
me  more  forcibly  than  the  general  equality  of  condi- 
tions. I  readily  discovered  the  prodigious  influence  which  this 
primary  fact  exercises  on  the  whole  course  of  society,  by  giving 
a  certain  direction  to  public  opinion,  and  a  certain  tenor  to  the 
laws ;  by  imparting  new  maxims  to  the  governing  powers,  and 
peculiar  habits  to  the  governed.  I  speedily  perceived  that  the 
influence  of  this  fact  extends  far  beyond  the  political  character 
and  the  laws  of  the  country,  and  that  it  has  no  less  empire  over 
civil  society  than  over  the  Government;  it  creates  opinions, 
engenders  sentiments,  suggests  the  ordinary  practices  of  life, 
and  modifies  whatever  it  does  not  produce.  The  more  I  ad- 
vanced in  the  study  of  American  society,  the  more  I  perceived 
that  the  equality  of  conditions  is  the  fundamental  fact  from 
which  all  others  seem  to  be  derived,  and  the  central  point  at 
which  all  my  observations  constantly  terminated. 

I  then  turned  my  thoughts  to  our  own  hemisphere,  where  I 
imagined  that  I  discerned  something  analogous  to  the  spectacle 
which  the  New  World  presented  to  me.  I  observed  that  the 
equality  of  conditions  is  daily  progressing  towards  those  ex- 
treme limits  which  it  seems  to  have  reached  in  the  United  States, 
and  that  the  democracy  which  governs  the  American  communi- 
ties appears  to  be  rapidly  rising  into  power  in  Europe.  I  hence 
conceived  the  idea  of  the  book  which  is  now  before  the  reader. 

It  is  evident  to  all  alike  that  a  great  democratic  revolution 
is  going  on  amongst  us ;  but  there  are  two  opinions  as  to  its 
nature  and  consequences.  To  some  it  appears  to  be  a  novel 
accident,  which  as  such  may  still  be  checked ;  to  others  it  seems 
irresistible,  because  it  is  the  most  uniform,  the  most  ancient, 
and  the  most  permanent  tendency  which  is  to  be  found  in  his- 
tory. Let  us  recollect  the  situation  of  France  seven  hundred 
years  ago,  when  the  territory  was  divided  amongst  a  small 

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4  DE  TOCQUEVILLE 

number  of  families,  who  were  the  owners  of  the  soil  and  the 
rulers  of  the  inhabitants;  the  right  of  governing  descended 
with  the  family  inheritance  from  generation  to  generation; 
force  was  the  only  means  by  which  man  could  act  on  man,  and 
landed  property  was  the  sole  source  of  power.  Soon,  however, 
the  political  power  of  the  clergy  was  founded,  and  began  to 
exert  itself:  the  clergy  opened  its  ranks  to  all  classes,  to  the 
poor  and  the  rich,  the  villein  and  the  lord ;  equality  penetrated 
into  the  Government  through  the  Church,  and  the  being  who 
as  a  serf  must  have  vegetated  in  perpetual  bondage  took  his 
place  as  a  priest  in  the  midst  of  nobles,  and  not  infrequently 
above  the  heads  of  kings. 

The  different  relations  of  men  became  more  complicated  and 
more  numerous  as  society  gradually  became  more  stable  and 
more  civilized.  Thence  the  want  of  civil  laws  was  felt;  and 
the  order  of  legal  functionaries  soon  rose  from  the  obscurity 
of  the  tribunals  and  their  dusty  chambers,  to  appear  at  the  court 
of  the  monarch,  by  the  side  of  the  feudal  barons  in  their  ermine 
and  their  mail.  Whilst  the  kings  were  ruining  themselves  by 
their  great  enterprises,  and  the  nobles  exhausting  their  re- 
sources by  private  wars,  the  lower  orders  were  enriching  them- 
selves by  commerce.  The  influence  of  money  began  to  be  per- 
ceptible in  State  affairs.  The  transactions  of  business  opened 
a  new  road  to  power,  and  the  financier  rose  to  a  station  of  politi- 
cal influence  in  which  he  was  at  once  flattered  and  despised. 
Gradually  the  spread  of  mental  acquirements,  and  the  increas- 
ing taste  for  literature  and  art,  opened  chances  of  success  to 
talent;  science  became  a  means  of  government,  intelligence 
led  to  social  power,  and  the  man  of  letters  took  a  part  in  the 
affairs  of  the  State.  The  value  attached  to  the  privileges  of 
birth  decreased  in  the  exact  proportion  in  which  new  paths  were 
struck  out  to  advancement.  In  the  eleventh  century  nobility 
was  beyond  all  price ;  in  the  thirteenth  it  might  be  purchased ; 
it  was  conferred  for  the  first  time  in  1270;  and  equality  was 
thus  introduced  into  the  Government  by  the  aristocracy  itself. 

In  the  course  of  these  seven  hundred  years  it  sometimes  hap- 
pened that  in  order  to  resist  the  authority  of  the  Crown,  or  to 
diminish  the  power  of  their  rivals,  the  nobles  granted  a  certain 
share  of  political  rights  to  the  people.  Or,  more  frequently,  the 
king  permitted  the  lower  orders  to  enjoy  a  degree  of  power, 
with  the  intention  of  repressing  the  aristocracy.    In  France  the 


i/v 


1^' 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


kings  have  always  been  the  most  active  and  the  most  constant 
of  levellers.  When  they  were  strong  and  ambitious  they  spared 
no  pains  to  raise  the  people  to  the  level  of  the  nobles;  when 
they  were  temperate  or  weak  they  allowed  the  pec  to  rise 
above  themselves.  Some  assisted  the  democracy  by  ^neir  tal- 
ents, others  by  their  vices.  Louis  XI  and  Louis  XIV  reduced 
every  rank  beneath  the  throne  to  the  same  subjection;  Louis 
XV  descended,  himself  and  all  his  Court,  into  the  dust. 

As  soon  as  land  was  held  on  any  other  than  a  feudal  tenure, 
and  personal  property  began  in  its  turn  to  confer  influence  and 
power,  every  improvement  which  was  introduced  in  commerce 
or  manufacture  was  a  fresh  element  of  the  equality  of  condi- 
tions. Henceforward  every  new  discovery,  every  new  want 
which  it  engendered,  and  every  new  desire  which  craved  satis- 
faction, was  a  step  towards  the  universal  level.  The  taste  for 
luxury,  the  love  of  war,  the  sway  of  fashion,  and  the  most 
superficial  as  well  as  the  deepest  passions  of  the  human  heart, 
co-operated  to  enrich  the  poor  and  to  impoverish  the  rich. 

From  the  time  when  the  exercise  of  the  intellect  became  the 
source  of  strength  and  of  wealth,  it  is  impossible  not  to  con- 
sider every  addition  to  science,  every  fresh  truth,  and  everv 
new  idea  as  a  germ  of  power  placed  within  the  reach  of  the 
people.  Poetry,  eloquence,  and  memory,  the  grace  of  wit,  the 
glow  of  imagination,  the  depth  of  thought,  and  all  the  gifts 
which  are  bestowed  by  Providence  with  an  equal  hand,  turned 
to  the  advantage  of  the  democracy ;  and  even  when  they  were 
in  the  possession  of  its  adversaries  they  still  served  its  cause 
by  throwing  into  relief  the  natural  greatness  of  man ;  its  con- 
quests spread,  therefore,  with  those  of  civilization  and  knowl- 
edge, and  literature  became  an  arsenal  where  the  poorest  and 
the  weakest  could  always  find  weapons  to  their  hand. 

In  perusing  the  pages  of  our  history,  we  shall  scarcely  meet 
with  a  single  great  event,  in  the  lapse  of  seven  hundred  years, 
which  has  not  turned  to  the  advantage  of  equality.  The  Cru- 
sades and  the  wars  of  the  English  decimated  the  nobles  and 
divided  their  possessions;  the  erection  of  communities  intro- 
duced an  element  of  democratic  liberty  into  the  bosom  of  feudal 
monarchy ;  the  invention  of  fire-arms  equalized  the  villein  and 
the  noble  on  the  field  of  battle;  printing  opened  the  same  re- 
sources to  the  minds  of  all  classes ;  the  post  was  organized  so 
as  to  bring  the  same  information  to  the  door  of  the  poor  man's 


I*; 


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!^ 


6  DE  TOCQUEVILLE 

cottage  and  to  the  gate  of  the  palace ;  and  Protestantism  pro- 
claimed that  all  men  are  alike  able  to  find  the  road  to  heaven. 
The  discovery  of  America  offered  a  thousand  new  paths  to 
fortune,  and  placed  riches  and  power  within  the  reach  of  the 
adventurous  and  the  obscure.  If  we  examine  what  has  hap- 
pened in  France  at  intervals  of  fifty  years,  beginning  with  the 
eleventh  century,  we  shall  invariably  perceive  that  a  twofold 
revolution  has  taken  place  in  the  state  of  society.  The  noble 
has  gone  down  on  the  social  ladder,  and  the  roturier  has  gone 
up;  the  one  descends  as  the  other  rises.  Every  half  century 
brings  them  nearer  to  each  other,  and  they  will  very  shortly 
meet. 

Nor  is  this  phenomenon  at  all  peculiar  to  France.  Whither- 
soever we  turn  our  eyes  we  shall  witness  the  same  continual 
revolution  throughout  the  whole  of  Christendom.  The  various 
occurrences  of  national  existence  have  everywhere  turned  to 
the  advantage  of  democracy ;  all  men  have  aided  it  by  their  ex- 
ertions :  those  who  have  intentionally  labored  in  its  •.^use,  and 
those  who  have  served  it  unwittingly ;  those  who  ha"e  fought 
for  it  and  those  who  have  declared  themselves  its  opponents, 
have  all  been  driven  along  in  the  same  track,  have  all  labored  to 
one  end,  some  ignorantly  and  some  unwillingly ;  all  have  been 
blind  instruments  in  the  hands  of  God. 

The  gradual  development  of  the  equality  of  conditions  is 
therefore  a  providential  fact,  and  it  possesses  all  the  characteris- 
tics of  a  divine  decree :  it  is  universal,  v'  '"s  durable,  it  constantly 
eludes  all  human  interference,  and  all  events  as  well  as  all  men 
contribute  to  its  progress.  Would  it,  then,  be  wise  to  imagine 
that  a  social  impulse  which  dates  from  so  far  back  can  be  checked 
by  the  efforts  of  a  generation  ?  Is  it  credible  that  the  democracy 
which  has  annihilated  the  feudal  system  and  vanquished  kings 
will  respect  the  citizen  and  the  capitalist?  Will  it  stop  now  that 
it  has  grown  so  strong  and  its  adversaries  so  weak  ?  None  can 
say  which  way  we  are  going,  for  all  terms  of  comparison  are 
wanting:  the  equality  of  conditions  is  more  complete  in  the 
Christian  countries  of  the  present  day  than  it  has  been  at  any 
time  or  in  any  part  of  the  world ;  so  that  the  extent  of  what  al- 
ready exists  prevents  us  from  foreseeing  what  may  be  yet  to 
come. 

The  whole  book  which  is  here  offered  to  the  public  has  been 
written  under  the  impression  of  a  kind  of  religious  dread  pro- 


', 


\ 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA  1 

duced  in  the  author's  mind  by  the  contemplati(/  of  so  in  - 
sistible  a  revolution,  which  has  advanced  for  centuries  in  spite  ui 
such  amazing  obstacles,  and  which  is  still  proceeding  in  the 
midst  of  the  ruins  it  has  made.  It  is  not  necessary  that  God 
himself  should  speak  in  order  to  disclose  to  us  the  unquestion- 
able signs  of  His  will;  we  can  discern  them  in  the  habitual 
course  of  nature,  and  in  the  invariable  tendency  of  events :  I 
know,  without  a  special  revelation,  that  the  planets  move  in  the 
orbits  traced  by  the  Creator's  finger.  If  the  men  of  our  time 
were  led  by  attentive  observation  and  by  sincere  reflection  to 
acknowledge  that  the  gradual  and  progressive  development  of 
social  equality  is  at  once  the  past  and  future  of  their  history, 
this  solitary  truth  would  confer  the  sacred  character  of  a  Divine 
decree  upon  the  change.  To  attempt  to  check  democracy  would 
be  in  that  case  to  resist  the  will  of  God ;  and  the  nations  would 
then  be  constrained  to  make  the  best  of  the  social  lot  awarded  to 
them  by  Providence. 

The  Christian  nations  of  our  age  seem  to  me  to  present  a  most 
alarming  spectacle;  the  impulse  which  is  bearing  them  along 
is  so  strong  that  it  cannot  be  stopped,  but  it  is  not  yet  so  rapid 
that  it  cannot  be  guided :  their  fate  is  in  their  hands ;  yet  a  little 
while  and  it  may  be  so  no  longer.  The  first  duty  which  is  at  this 
time  imposed  upon  those  who  direct  our  affairs  is  to  educate  the 
democracy ;  to  warm  its  faith,  if  that  be  possible ;  to  purify  its 
morals;  to  direct  its  energies;  to  substitute  a  knowledge  of 
business  for  its  inexperience,  and  an  acquaintance  with  its  true 
interests  for  its  blind  propensities ;  to  adapt  its  government  to 
time  and  place,  and  to  modify  it  in  compliance  with  the  occur- 
rences and  the  actors  of  the  age.  A  new  science  of  politics  is  in- 
dispensable to  a  new  world.  This,  however,  is  what  we  think 
of  least ;  launched  in  the  middle  of  a  rapid  stream,  we  obsti- 
nately fix  our  eyes  on  the  ruins  which  may  still  be  described  upon 
the  shore  we  have  left,  whilst  the  current  sweeps  us  along,  and 
drives  us  backwards  towards  the  gulf. 

In  no  country  in  Europe  has  the  great  social  revolution  which 
I  have  been  describing  made  such  rapid  progress  as  in  France ; 
but  it  has  always  been  borne  on  by  chance.  The  heads  of  the 
State  have  never  had  any  forethought  for  its  exigencies,  and 
its  victories  have  been  obtained  without  their  consent  or  with- 
out their  knowledge.  The  most  powerful,  the  most  intelligent, 
and  the  most  moral  classes  of  the  nation  have  never  attempted  to 


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connect  themselves  with  it  in  order  to  guide  it.  The  people 
has  consequently  been  abandoned  to  its  wild  propensities,  and 
it  has  grown  up  like  those  outcasts  who  receive  their  education 
in  the  public  streets,  and  who  arc  unacquainted  with  aught  but 
the  vices  and  wretchedness  of  society.  The  existence  of  a  de- 
mocracy was  seemingly  unknown,  when  on  a  sudden  it  took 
possession  of  the  supreme  power.  Everything  was  then  sub- 
mitted to  its  caprices ;  it  was  worshipped  as  the  idol  of  strength ; 
until,  when  it  was  enfeebled  by  its  own  excesses,  the  legislator 
conceived  the  rash  project  of  annihilating  its  power,  instead  of 
instructing  it  and  correcting  its  vices;, no  attempt  was  made  to 
fit  it  to  govern,  but  all  were  bent  on  excluding  it  from  the  gov- 
ernment. 

The  consequence  of  this  has  been  that  the  democratic  revolu- 
tion has  been  effected  only  in  the  material  parts  of  society,  with- 
out that  concomitant  change  in  laws,  ideas,  customs,  and  man- 
ners which  Was  necessary  to  render  such  a  revolution  beneficial. 
We  have  gotten  a  democracy,  but  without  the  conditions  which 
lessen  its  vices  and  render  its  natural  advantages  more  promi- 
nent ;  and  although  we  already  perceive  the  evils  it  brings,  we 
are  ignorant  of  the  benefits  it  may  confer. 

While  the  power  of  the  Crown,  supported  by  the  aristocracy, 
peaceably  governed  the  nations  of  Europe,  society  possessed, 
in  the  midst  of  its  wretchedness,  several  different  advantages 
which  can  now  scarcely  be  appreciated  or  conceived.  The  power 
of  a  part  of  his  subjects  was  an  insurmountable  barrier  to  the 
tyranny  of  the  prince;  and  the  monarch,  who  felt  the  almost 
divine  character  which  he  enjoyed  in  the  eyes  of  the  multitude, 
derived  a  motive  for  the  just  use  of  his  power  from  the  respect 
which  he  inspired.  High  as  they  were  placed  above  the  people, 
the  nobles  could  not  but  take  that  calm  and  benevolent  interest  in 
its  fate  which  the  shepherd  feels  towards  his  flock ;  and  with- 
out acknowledging  the  poor  as  their  equals,  they  watched  over 
the  destiny  of  those  whose  welfare  Providence  had  entrusted  to 
their  care.  The  people  never  having  conceived  the  idea  of  a 
social  condition  different  from  its  own,  and  entertaining  no 
expectation  of  ever  ranking  with  its  chiefs,  received  benefits 
from  them  without  discussing  their  rights.  It  grew  attached  to 
them  when  they  were  clement  and  just,  and  it  submitted  with- 
out resistance  or  servility  to  their  exactions,  as  to  the  inevit- 
able visitations  of  the  arm  of  God.     Custom,  and  the  manners 


:^ji 


DEMOCRACY   IN   AMERICA 


of  the  time,  had  moreover  created  a  species  of  law  in  the  midst 
of  violence,  and  established  certain  limits  to  oppression.  As  the 
noble  never  suspected  that  anyone  would  attempt  to  deprive  him 
of  the  privileges  which  he  believed  to  be  legitimate,  and  as  the 
serf  looked  upon  his  own  inferiority  as  a  consequence  of  the 
immutable  order  of  nature,  it  is  easy  to  imagine  that  a  mutual 
exchange  of  good-will  took  place  between  two  classes  so  diflfer- 
ently  j;iftcd  by  fate.  Inequality  and  wretchedness  were  then  to 
be  found  in  society ;  but  the  souls  of  neither  rank  of  men  were 
degraded.  Men  are  not  corrupted  by  the  exercise  of  power  or 
debased  by  the  habit  of  obedience,  but  by  the  exercise  of  a  power 
which  they  believe  to  be  illegal  and  by  obedience  to  a  rule  which 
they  consider  to  be  usurped  and  oppressive.  On  one  side  was 
wealth,  strength,  and  leisure,  accompanied  by  the  refinements 
of  luxury,  the  elegance  of  taste,  the  pleasures  of  wit,  and  the  re- 
ligion of  art.  On  the  other  was  labor  and  a  rude  ignorance ;  but 
in  the  midst  of  this  coarse  and  ignorant  multitude  it  was  not  un- 
common to  meet  with  energetic  passions,  generous  sentiments, 
profound  religious  convictions,  and  independent  virtues.  The 
body  of  a  State  thus  organized  might  boast  of  its  stability,  its 
power,  and,  above  all,  of  its  glory. 

But  the  scene  is  now  changed,  and  gradually  the  two  ranks 
mingle ;  the  divisions  which  once  severed  mankind  are  lowered, 
property  is  divided,  power  is  held  in  common,  the  light  of  intelli- 
gence spreads,  and  the  capacities  of  all  classes  are  equally  culti- 
vated ;  the  State  becomes  democratic,  and  the  empire  of  de- 
mocracy is  slowly  and  peaceably  introduced  into  the  institutions 
and  the  manners  of  the  nation.  I  can  conceive  a  society  in  which 
all  men  would  profess  an  equal  attachment  and  respect  for  the 
laws  of  which  they  are  the  common  authors ;  in  which  the  au- 
thority of  the  State  would  be  respected  as  necessary,  though 
not  as  divine ;  and  the  loyalty  of  the  subject  to  its  chief  magis- 
trate would  not  be  a  passion,  but  a  quiet  and  rational  persua- 
sion. Every  individual  being,  in  the  possession  of  rights  which 
he  is  sure  to  retain,  a  kind  of  manly  reliance  and  reciprocal 
courtesy  would  arise  between  all  classes,  alike  removed  from 
pride  and  meanness.  The  people,  well  acquainted  with  its  true 
intcvests,  would  allow  that  in  order  to  profit  by  the  advantages 
of  society  it  is  necessary  to  satisfy  its  demands.  In  this  state 
of  things  the  voluntary  association  of  the  citizens  might  supply 


"/ 


K 


I: 


lO 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


the  individual  exertions  of  the  nobles,  and  the  community  would 
be  alike  protected  from  anarchy  and  from  oppression. 

I  admit  that,  in  a  democratic  State  thus  constituted,  society 
will  not  be  stationary ;  but  the  impulses  of  the  social  body  may 
be  regulated  and  directed  forwards;  if  there  be  less  splendor 
than  in  the  li  ills  of  an  aristocracy,  the  contrast  of  misery  will 
be  less  frequent  also;  the  pleasures  of  enjoyment  may  be  less 
excessive,  but  those  of  comfort  will  be  more  general ;  the  sci- 
ences may  be  less  perfectly  cultivated,  but  ignorance  will  be  less 
common ;  the  impetuosity  of  the  feelings  will  be  repressed,  and 
the  habits  of  the  nation  softened ;  there  will  be  more  vices  and 
fewer  crimes.  In  the  absence  of  enthusiasm  and  of  an  ardent 
faith,  great  sacrifices  may  be  obtained  from  the  members  of  a 
commonwealth  by  an  appeal  to  their  understandings  and  their 
experience ;  each  individual  will  feel  the  same  necessity  for  unit- 
ing with  his  fellow-citizens  to  protect  his  own  weakness ;  and  as 
he  knows  that  if  they  are  to  assist  he  must  co-operate,  he  will 
readily  perceive  that  his  personal  interest  is  identified  with  the 
interest  of  the  community.  The  nation,  taken  as  a  whole,  will  be 
less  brilliant,  less  glorious,  and  perhaps  less  strong;  but  the 
majority  of  the  citizens  will  enjoy  a  greater  degree  of  pros- 
perity, and  the  people  will  remain  quiet,  not  because  it  despairs 
of  amelioration,  but  because  it  is  conscious  of  the  advantages 
of  its  condition.  If  all  the  consequences  of  this  state  of  things 
were  not  good  or  useful,  society  would  at  least  have  appropri- 
ated all  such  as  were  useful  and  good ;  and  having  once  and  for 
ever  renounced  the  social  advantages  of  aristocracy,  mankind 
would  enter  into  possession  of  all  the  benefits  which  democracy 
can  afiford. 

But  here  it  may  be  asked  what  we  have  adopted  in  the  place 
of  those  institutions,  those  ideas,  and  those  customs  of  our  fore- 
fathers which  we  have  abandoned.  The  spell  of  royalty  is 
broken,  but  it  has  not  been  succeeded  by  the  majesty  of  the  laws ; 
the  people  has  learned  to  despise  all  authority,  but  fear  now  ex- 
torts a  larger  tribute  of  obedience  than  that  which  was  formerly 
paid  by  reverence  and  by  love. 

I  perceive  that  we  have  destroyed  those  independent  beings 
which  were  able  to  cope  with  tyranny  single-handed ;  but  it  is 
the  Government  that  has  inherited  the  privileges  of  which  fam- 
ilies, corporations,  and  individuals  have  been  deprived ;  the 
weakness  of  the  whole  community  has  therefore  succeeded  that 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


II 


influence  of  a  small  body  of  citizens,  which,  if  it  was  sometimes 
oppressive,  was  often  conservative.  The  division  of  property 
has  lessened  the  distance  which  separated  the  rich  from  the  poor ; 
but  it  would  seem  that  the  nearer  they  draw  to  each  other,  the 
greater  is  their  mutual  hatred,  and  the  more  vehement  the  envy 
and  the  dread  with  which  they  resist  each  other's  claims  to 
power ;  the  notion  of  Right  is  alike  insensible  to  both  classes, 
and  Force  affords  to  both  the  only  argument  for  the  present,  and 
the  only  guarantee  for  the  future.  The  poor  man  retains  the 
prejudices  of  his  forefathers  without  their  faith,  and  their  ig- 
norance without  their  virtues ;  he  has  adopted  the  doctrine  of 
self-interest  as  the  rule  of  his  actions,  without  understanding 
the  science  which  controls  it,  and  his  egotism  is  no  less  blind 
than  his  devotedness  was  formerly.  If  society  is  tranquil,  it  is 
not  because  it  relies  upon  its  strength  and  its  well-being,  but 
because  it  knows  its  weakness  and  its  infirmities ;  a  single  eflfort 
may  cost  it  its  life;  everybody  feels  the  evil,  but  no  one  has 
courage  or  energy  enough  to  seek  the  cure;  the  desires,  the 
regret,  the  sorrows,  and  the  joys  of  the  time  produce  nothing 
that  is  visible  or  permanent,  like  the  passions  of  old  men  which 
terminate  in  impotence. 

We  have,  then,  abandoned  whatever  advantages  the  old  state 
of  things  aflforded,  without  receiving  any  compensation  from 
our  present  condition ;  we  have  destroyed  an  aristocracy,  and 
we  seem  inclined  to  survey  its  ruins  with  complacency,  and  to 
fix  our  abode  in  the  midst  of  them. 

The  phenomena  which  the  intellectual  world  presents  are  not 
less  deplorable.  The  democracy  of  France,  checked  in  its  course 
or  abandoned  to  its  lawless  passions,  has  overthrown  whatever 
crossed  its  path,  and  has  shaken  all  that  it  has  not  destroyed. 
Its  empire  on  society  has  not  been  gradually  introduced  or 
peaceably  established,  but  it  has  constantly  advanced  in  the 
midst  of  disorder  and  the  agitation  of  a  conflict.  In  the  heat  of 
the  struggle  each  partisan  is  hurried  beyond  the  limits  of  his 
opinions  by  the  opinions  and  the  excesses  of  his  opponents,  un- 
til he  loses  sight  of  the  end  of  his  exertions,  and  holds  a  language 
which  disguises  his  real  sentiments  or  secret  instincts.  Hence 
arises  the  strange  confusion  which  we  are  witnessing.  I  can- 
not recall  to  my  mind  a  passage  in  history  more  worthy  of  sor- 
row and  of  pity  than  the  scenes  which  are  happening  under  our 
eyes ;  it  is  as  if  the  natural  bond  which  unites  the  opinions  of 


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12 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


man  to  his  tastes  and  his  actions  to  his  principles  was  now 
broken ;  the  sympathy  which  has  always  been  acknowledged  be- 
tween the  feelings  and  the  ideas  of  mankind  appears  to  be  dis- 
solved, and  all  the  laws  of  moral  analogy  to  be  abolished. 

Zealous  Christians  may  be  found  amongst  us  whose  minds 
are  nurtured  in  the  love  and  knowledge  of  a  future  life,  and 
who  readily  espouse  the  cause  of  human  liberty  as  the  source  of 
all  moral  greatness.  Christianity,  which  has  declared  that  all 
men  are  equal  in  the  sight  of  God,  will  not  refuse  to  acknowl- 
edge that  all  citizens  are  equal  in  the  eye  of  the  law.  But,  by  a 
singular  concourse  of  events,  religion  is  entangled  in  those  insti- 
tutions which  democracy  assails,  and  it  is  not  unfrequently 
brought  to  reject  the  equality  it  loves,  and  to  curse  that  cause 
of  liberty  as  a  foe  which  it  might  hallow  by  its  alliance. 

By  the  side  of  these  religious  men  I  discern  others  whose 
looks  are  turned  to  the  earth  more  than  to  Heaven ;  they  are 
the  partisans  of  liberty,  not  only  as  the  source  of  the  noblest 
virtues,  but  more  especially  as  the  root  of  all  solid  advantages ; 
and  they  sincerely  desire  to  extend  its  sway,  and  to  impart  its 
blessings  to  mankind.  It  is  natural  that  they  should  hasten  to 
invoke  the  assistance  of  religion,  for  they  must  know  that  liberty 
cannot  be  established  without  morality,  nor  morality  without 
faith ;  but  they  have  seen  religion  in  the  ranks  of  their  adver- 
saries, and  they  inquire  no  further;  some  of  them  attack  it 
openly,  and  the  remainder  are  afraid  to  defend  it. 

In  former  ages  slavery  has  been  advocated  by  the  venal  and 
slavish-minded,  whilst  the  independent  and  the  warm-hearted 
were  struggling  without  hope  to  save  the  liberties  of  mankind. 
But  men  of  high  and  generous  characters  are  now  to  be  met 
with,  whose  opinions  are  at  variance  with  their  inclinations,  and 
who  praise  that  servility  which  they  have  themselves  never 
known.  Others,  on  the  contrary,  speak  in  the  name  of  liberty, 
as  if  they  were  able  to  feel  its  sanctity  and  its  majesty,  and 
loudly  claim  for  humanity  those  rights  which  they  have  always 
disowned.  There  are  virtuous  and  peaceful  individuals  whose 
pure  morality,  quiet  habits,  affluence,  and  talents  fit  them  to  be 
the  leaders  of  the  surrounding  population ;  their  love  of  their 
country  is  sincere,  and  they  are  prepared  to  make  the  greatest 
sacrifices  to  its  welfare,  but  they  confound  the  abuses  of  civiliza- 
tion with  its  benefits,  and  the  idea  of  evil  is  inseparable  in  their 
minds  from  that  of  novelty. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


13 


Not  far  from  this  class  is  another  party,  whose  object  is  to 
materialize  mankind,  to  hit  upon  what  is  expedient  without 
heeding  what  is  just,  to  acquire  knowledge  without  faith,  and 
prosperity  apart  from  virtue ;  assuming  the  title  of  the  cham- 
pions of  modern  civilization,  and  placing  themselves  in  a  station 
which  they  usurp  with  insolence,  and  from  which  they  are 
driven  by  their  own  unworthiness.  Where  are  we  then?  The 
religionists  are  the  enemies  of  liberty,  and  the  friends  of  liberty 
attack  religion;  the  high-minded  and  the  noble  advocate  sub- 
jection, and  the  meanest  and  most  servile  minds  preach  inde- 
pendence; honest  and  enlightened  citizens  are  opposed  to  all 
progress,  whilst  men  without  patriotism  and  without  principles 
are  the  apostles  of  civilization  and  of  intelligence.  Has  such 
been  the  fate  of  the  centuries  which  have  preceded  our  own? 
and  has  man  always  inhabited  a  world  like  the  present,  where 
nothing  is  linked  together,  where  virtue  is  without  genius,  and 
genius  without  honor;  where  the  love  of  order  is  confounded 
with  a  taste  for  oppression,  and  the  holy  rites  of  freedom  with  a 
contempt  of  law ;  where  the  light  thrown  by  conscience  on  hu- 
man actions  is  dim,  and  where  nothing  seems  to  be  any  longer 
forbidden  or  allowed,  honorable  or  shameful,  false  or  true?  I 
cannot,  however,  believe  that  the  Creator  made  man  to  leave  him 
in  an  endless  struggle  with  the  intellectual  miseries  which  sur- 
round us :  God  destines  a  calmer  and  a  more  certain  future  to 
the  communities  of  Europe ;  I  am  unacquainted  with  His  de- 
signs, but  I  shall  not  cease  to  believe  in  them  because  I  cannot 
fathom  them,  and  I  had  rather  mistrust  my  own  capacity  than 
His  justice. 

There  is  a  country  in  the  world  where  the  great  revolution 
which  I  am  speaking  of  seems  nearly  to  have  reached  its  natural 
limits ;  it  has  been  effected  with  ease  and  simplicity,  say  rather 
that  this  country  has  attained  the  consequences  of  the  demo- 
cratic revolution  which  we  are  undergoing  without  having 
experienced  the  revolution  itself.  The  emigrants  who  fixed 
themselves  on  the  shores  of  America  in  the  beginning  of  the 
seventeenth  century  severed  the  democratic  principle  from  all 
the  principles  which  repressed  it  in  the  old  communities  of  Eu- 
rope, and  transplanted  it  unalloyed  to  the  New  World.  It  has 
there  been  allowed  to  spread  in  perfect  freedom,  and  to  put  forth 
its  consequences  in  the  laws  by  influencing  the  manners  of  the 
country. 


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14 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


It  appears  to  me  beyond  a  doubt  that  sooner  or  later  we  shall 
arrive,  like  the  Americans,  at  an  almost  complete  equality  of 
conditions.  But  I  do  not  conclude  from  this  that  we  shall  ever 
be  necessarily  led  to  draw  the  same  political  consequences  which 
the  Americans  have  derived  from  a  similar  social  organization. 
I  am  far  from  supposing  that  they  have  chosen  the  only  form 
of  government  which  a  democracy  may  adopt ;  but  the  identity 
of  the  efficient  cause  of  laws  and  manners  in  the  two  countries  is 
sufficient  to  account  for  the  immense  interest  we  have  in  becom- 
ing acquainted  with  its  effects  in  each  of  them. 

It  is  not,  then,  merely  to  satisfy  a  legitimate  curiosity  that 
I  have  examined  America ;  my  wish  has  been  to  find  instruction 
by  which  we  may  ourselves  profit.  Whoever  should  imagine 
that  I  have  intended  to  write  a  panegyric  will  perceive  that  such 
was  not  my  design ;  nor  has  it  been  my  object  to  advocate  any 
form  of  government  in  particular,  for  I  am  of  opinion  that  ab- 
solute excellence  is  rarely  to  be  found  in  any  legislation ;  I  have 
not  even  affected  to  discuss  whether  the  social  revolution,  which 
I  believe  to  be  irresistible,  is  advantageous  or  prejudicial  to  man- 
kind; I  have  acknowledged  this  revolution  as  a  fact  already 
accomplished  or  on  the  eve  of  its  accomplishment ;  and  I  have 
selected  the  nation,  from  amongst  those  which  have  undergone 
it,  in  which  its  development  has  been  the  most  peaceful  and  the 
most  complete,  in  order  to  discern  its  natural  consequences,  and, 
if  it  be  possible,  to  distinguish  the  means  by  which  it  may  be 
rendered  profitable.  I  confess  that  in  America  I  saw  more  than 
America ;  I  sought  the  image  of  democracy  itself,  with  its  in- 
clinations, its  character,  its  prejudices,  and  its  passions,  in  or- 
der to  learn  what  we  have  to  fear  or  to  hope  from  its  progress. 

In  the  first  part  of  this  work  I  have  attempted  to  show  the 
te  dency  given  to  the  laws  by  the  democracy  of  America,  which 
is  abandoned  almost  without  restraint  to  its  instinctive  propen- 
sities, and  to  exhibit  the  course  it  prescribes  to  the  Government 
and  the  influence  it  exercises  on  affairs.  I  have  sought  to  dis- 
cover the  evils  and  the  advantages  which  it  produces.  I  have 
examined  the  precautions  used  by  the  Americans  to  direct  it, 
as  well  as  those  which  they  have  not  adopted,  and  I  have  under- 
taken to  point  out  the  causes  which  enable  it  to  govern  so- 
ciety. I  do  not  know  whether  I  have  succeeded  in  making 
known  what  I  saw  in  America,  but  I  am  certain  that  such  has 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


15 


been  my  sincere  desire,  and  that  I  have  never,  knowingly, 
moulded  facts  to  ideas,  instead  of  ideas  to  facts. 

Whenever  a  point  could  be  established  by  the  aid  of  written 
documents,  I  have  had  recourse  to  the  original  text,  and  to  the 
most  authentic  and  approved  works,  I  have  cited  my  au- 
thorities in  the  notes,  and  anyone  may  refer  to  them.  Whenever 
an  opinion,  a  political  custom,  or  a  remark  on  the  manners  of 
the  country  was  concerned,  I  endeavored  to  consult  the  most 
enlightened  men  I  met  with.  If  the  point  in  question  was  im- 
portant or  doubtful,  I  was  not  satisfied  with  one  testimony,  but 
I  formed  my  opinion  on  the  evidence  of  several  witnesses.  Here 
the  reader  must  necessarily  believe  me  upon  my  word.  I  could 
frequently  have  quoted  names  which  are  either  known  to  him, 
or  which  deserve  to  be  so,  in  proof  of  what  I  advance  |  but  I 
have  carefully  abstained  from  this  practice.  A  stranger  fre- 
quently hears  important  truths  at  the  fire-side  of  his  host,  which 
the  latter  would  perhaps  conceal  from  the  ear  of  friendship ;  he 
consoles  himself  with  his  guest  for  the  silence  to  which  he  is 
restricted,  and  the  shortness  of  the  traveller's  stay  takes  away 
all  fear  of  his  indiscretion.  I  carefully  noted  every  conversation 
of  this  nature  as  soon  as  it  occurred,  but  these  notes  will  never 
leave  my  writing-case;  I  had  rather  injure  the  success  of  my 
statements  than  add  my  name  to  the  list  of  those  strangers  who 
repay  the  generous  hospitality  they  have  received  by  subsequent 
chagrin  and  annoyance. 

I  am  aware  that,  notwithstanding  my  care,  nothing  will  be 
easier  than  to  criticise  this  book,  if  anyone  ever  chooses  to  criti- 
cise it.  Those  readers  who  may  examine  it  closely  will  discover 
the  fundamental  idea  which  connects  the  several  parts  together. 
But  the  diversity  of  the  subjects  I  have  had  to  treat  is  exceed- 
ingly great,  and  it  will  not  be  difficult  to  oppose  an  isolated  fact 
to  the  body  of  facts  which  I  quote,  or  an  isolated  idea  to  the  body 
of  ideas  I  put  forth.  I  hope  to  be  read  in  the  spirit  which  has 
guided  my  labors,  and  that  my  book  may  be  judged  by  the  gen- 
eral impression  it  leaves,  as  I  have  formed  my  own  judgment 
not  on  any  single  reason,  but  upon  the  mass  of  evidence.  It  must 
not  be  forgotten  that  the  author  who  wishes  to  be  understood  is 
obliged  to  push  all  his  ideas  to  their  utmost  theoretical  conse- 
quences, and  often  to  the  verge  of  what  is  false  or  impractic- 
able ;  for  if  it  be  necessary  sometimes  to  quit  the  rules  of  logic 
in  active  life,  such  is  not  the  case  in  discourse,  and  a  man  finds 


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that  almost  as  many  difficulties  spring  from  inconsistency  of 
language  as  usually  arise  from  inconsistency  of  conduct. 

I  conclude  by  pointing  out  myself  what  many  readers  will 
consider  the  principal  defect  of  the  work.  This  book  is  written 
to  favor  no  particular  views,  and  in  composing  it  I  have  enter- 
tained no  designs  of  serving  or  attacking  any  party;  I  have 
undertaken  not  to  see  differently,  but  to  look  further  than  par- 
ties, and  whilst  they  are  busied  for  the  morrow  I  have  turned 
my  thoughts  to  the  Future. 


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.^:^ 


:i 


CHAPTER   I 

EXTERIOR  FORM  OF  NORTH  AMERICA 

North  America  divided  into  two  vast  regions,  one  inclining  towards 
the  Pole,  the  other  towards  the  Equator — Valley  of  the  Mississippi 
— Traces  of  the  Revolutions  of  the  Globe — Shore  of  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  where  the  English  Colonies  were  founded — Difference  in  the 
appearance  of  North  and  of  South  America  at  ti.e  time  of  their 
Discovery — Forests  of  North  America — Prairies — Wandering 
Tribes  of  Natives — Their  outward  appearance,  manners,  and  lan- 
guage— Traces  of  an  unknown  people. 

NORTH  AMERICA  presents  in  its  external  form  certain 
general  features  which  it  is  easy  to  discriminate  at  the 

first  glance.  A  sort  of  methodical  order  seems  to  have 
regulated  the  separation  of  land  and  water,  mountains  and  val- 
leys. A  simple,  but  grand,  arrangement  is  discoverable  amidst 
the  confusion  of  objects  and  the  prodigious  variety  of  scenes. 
This  continent  is  divided,  almost  equally,  into  two  vast  regions, 
one  of  which  is  bounded  on  the  north  by  the  Arctic  Pole,  and  by 
the  two  great  oceans  on  the  east  and  west.  It  stretches  towards 
the  south,  forming  a  triangle  whose  irregular  sides  meet  at 
length  below  the  great  lakes  of  Canada.  The  second  region 
begins  where  the  other  terminates,  and  includes  all  the  re- 
mainder of  the  continent.  The  one  slopes  gently  towards  the 
Pole,  the  other  towards  the  Equator. 

The  territory  comprehended  in  the  first  region  descends 
towards  the  north  with  so  imperceptible  a  slope  that  it  may 
almost  be  said  to  form  a  level  plain.  Within  the  bounds  of  this 
immense  tract  of  country  there  are  neither  high  mountains  nor 
deep  valleys.  Streams  meander  through  it  irregularly :  great 
rivers  mix  their  currents,  separate  and  meet  again,  disperse  and 
form  vast  marshes,  losing  all  trace  of  their  channels  in  the  laby- 
rinth of  waters  they  have  themselves  created ;  and  thus,  at 
length,  after  innumerable  windings,  fall  into  the  Polar  Seas. 
The  great  lakes  which  bound  this  first  region  are  not  walled  in, 

Vol.  I. — 2  17 


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DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


like  most  of  those  in  the  Old  World,  between  hills  and  rocks. 
Their  banks  are  flat,  and  rise  but  a  few  feet  above  the  level  of 
their  waters ;  each  of  them  thus  forming  a  vast  bowl  filled  to 
the  brim.  The  slightest  change  in  the  structure  of  the  globe 
would  cause  their  waters  to  rush  either  towards  the  Pole  or  to 
the  tropical  sea. 

The  second  region  is  more  varied  on  its  surface,  and  better 
suited  for  the  habitation  of  man.  Two  long  chains  of  moun- 
tains divide  it  from  one  extreme  to  the  other ;  the  Alleghany 
ridge  takes  the  form  of  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean ;  the 
other  is  parallel  with  the  Pacific.  The  space  which  lies  between 
these  two  chains  of  mountains  contains  1,341,649  square  miles.o 
Its  surface  is  therefore  about  six  times  as  great  as  that  of 
France.  This  vast  territory,  however,  forms  a  single  valley, 
one  side  of  which  descends  gradually  from  the  rounded  sum- 
mits of  the  Alleghanies,  while  the  other  rises  in  an  uninter- 
rupted course  towards  the  tops  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  At 
the  bottom  of  the  valley  flows  an  immense  river,  into  which 
the  various  streams  issuing  from  the  mountains  fall  from  all 
parts.  In  memory  of  their  native  land,  the  French  formerly 
called  this  river  the  St.  Louis.  The  Indians,  in  their  pompous 
language,  have  named  it  the  Father  of  Waters,  or  the  Missis- 
sippi. 

The  Mississippi  takes  its  source  above  the  limit  of  the  two 
great  regions  of  which  I  have  spoken,  not  far  from  the  highest 
point  of  the  table-land  where  they  unite.  Near  the  same  spot 
rises  another  river,&  which  empties  itself  into  the  Polar  seas. 
The  course  of  the  Mississippi  is  at  first  dubious:  it  winds 
several  times  towards  the  north,  from  whence  it  rose;  and  at 
leiiglh,  after  having  been  delayed  in  lakes  and  marshes,  it  flows 
slowly  onwards  to  the  south.  Sometimes  quietly  gliding  along 
the  argillaceous  bed  which  nature  has  assigned  to  it,  some- 
times swollen  by  storms,  the  Mississippi  waters  2,500  miles  in 
its  course.c  At  the  distance  of  1,364  miles  from  its  mouth  this 
river  attains  an  average  depth  of  fifteen  feet ;  and  it  is  navigated 
by  vessels  of  300  tons  burden  for  a  course  of  nearly  500  miles. 
Fifty-seven  large  navigable  rivers  contribute  to  swell  the  waters 
of  the  Mississ''^ipi ;  amongst  others,  the  Missouri,  which  trav- 
erses a  space  of  2,500  miles ;  the  Arkansas  of  1,300  miles,  the 

View     of     the     United       __f  Warden's    _ "  Description      of      the 


a  Darby's 
States." 
bThe  Red  River. 


f  Warden's 
United  States.' 


\ 


I,'.. 


(1 


ii 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMI  lUCA 


»9 


Red  River  i,ooo  miles,  four  whose  course  is  from  800  to  1,000 
miles  in  length,  viz.,  the  Illinois,  the  St.  Peter's,  the  St.  Francis, 
and  the  Moingona;  besides  a  countless  multitude  of  rivulets 
which  unite  from  all  parts  their  tributary  streams. 

The  valley  which  is  watered  by  the  Mississippi  seems  formed 
to  be  the  bed  of  this  mighty  river,  which,  like  a  god  of  antiquity, 
dispenses  both  good  and  evil  in  its  course.  On  the  shores  of  the 
stream  nature  displays  an  inexhaustible  fertility;  in  propor- 
tion as  you  recede  from  its  banks,  the  powers  of  vegetation 
languish,  the  soil  becomes  poor,  and  the  plants  that  survive 
have  a  sickly  growth.  Nowhere  have  the  great  convulsions  of 
the  globe  left  more  evident  traces  than  in  the  valley  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi ;  the  whole  aspect  of  the  country  shows  the  powerful 
effects  of  water,  both  by  its  fertility  and  by  its  barrenness.  The 
waters  of  the  primeval  ocean  accumulated  enormous  beds  of 
vegetable  mould  in  the  valley,  which  they  levelled  as  they  retired. 
Upon  the  right  shore  of  the  river  are  seen  immense  plains,  as 
smooth  as  if  the  husbandman  had  passed  over  them  with  his 
roller.  As  you  approach  the  mountains  the  soil  becomes  more 
and  more  unequal  and  sterile ;  the  ground  is,  as  it  were,  pierced 
in  a  thousand  places  by  primitive  rocks,  which  appear  like  the 
bones  of  a  skeleton  whose  flesh  is  partly  consumed.  The  sur- 
face of  the  earth  is  covered  with  a  granite  sand  and  huge  irreg- 
ular masses  of  stone,  among  which  a  few  plants  force  their 
growth,  and  give  the  appearance  of  a  green  field  covered  with 
the  ruins  of  a  vast  edifice.  These  stones  and  this  sand  discover, 
on  examination,  a  perfect  analogy  with  those  which  compose 
the  arid  and  broken  summits  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  The 
flood  of  waters  which  washed  the  soil  to  the  bottom  of  the  val- 
ley afterwards  carried  away  portions  of  the  rocks  themselves; 
and  these,  dashed  and  bruised  against  the  neighboring  cliffs, 
were  left  scattered  like  wrecks  at  their  feet.d  The  valley  of 
the  Mississippi  is,  upon  the  whole,  the  most  magnificent  dwell- 
ing-place prepared  by  God  for  man's  abode;  and  yet  it  may 
be  said  that  at  present  it  is  but  a  mighty  desert. 

On  the  eastern  side  of  the  Alleghanies,  between  the  base  of 
these  mountains  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  there  lies  a  long  ridge 
of  rocks  and  sand,  which  the  sea  appears  to  have  left  behind  as 
it  retired.  The  mean  breadth  of  this  territory  does  not  exceed 
one  hundred  miles ;  but  it  is  about  nine  hundred  miles  in  length. 

d  See  Appendix,  A. 


i 


I''' 
1,1  •■ 


It 


1! 


li 


riscS?SKii^f2*rrTKfjn«M 


vU 


20 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


.     i 


This  part  of  the  American  continent  has  a  soil  which  offers 
every  obstacle  to  the  husbandman,  and  its  vegetation  is  scanty 
and  unvaried. 

Upon  this  inhospitable  coast  the  first  united  efforts  of  human 
industry  were  made.  The  tongue  of  arid  land  was  the  cradle  of 
those  English  colonies  which  were  destined  one  day  to  become 
the  United  States  of  America.  The  centre  of  power  still  re- 
mains here;  whilst  in  the  backwoods  the  true  elements  of  the 
great  people  to  whom  the  future  control  of  the  continent  be- 
longs are  gathering  almost  in  secrecy  together. 

When  the  Europeans  first  landed  on  the  shores  of  the  West 
Indies,  and  afterwards  on  the  coast  of  South  America,  they 
thought  themselves  transported  into  those  fabulous  regions 
of  which  poets  had  sung.  The  sea  sparkled  with  phosphoric 
light,  and  the  extraordinary  transparency  of  its  waters  dis- 
covered to  the  view  of  the  navigator  all  that  had  hitherto  been 
hidden  in  the  deep  abyss.^  Here  and  there  appeared  little 
islands  perfumed  with  odoriferous  plants,  and  resembling  bask- 
ets of  flowers  floating  on  the  tranquil  surface  of  the  ocean. 
Every  object  which  met  the  sight,  in  this  enchanting  region, 
seemed  prepared  to  satisfy  the  wants  or  contribute  to  the  pleas- 
ures of  man.  Almost  all  the  trees  were  loaded  with  nourishing 
fruits,  and  those  which  were  useless  as  food  delighted  the  eye 
by  the  brilliancy  and  variety  of  their  colors.  In  groves  of 
fragrant  lemon-trees,  wild  figs,  flowering  myrtles,  acacias,  and 
oleanders,  which  were  hung  with  festoons  of  various  climbing 
plants,  covered  with  flowers,  a  multitude  of  birds  unknown  in 
Europe  displayed  their  bright  plumage,  glittering  with  purple 
and  azure,  and  mingled  their  warbling  with  the  harmony  of  a 
world  teeming  with  life  and  motion.^  Underneath  this  brilliant 
exterior  death  was  concealed.  But  the  air  of  these  climates  had 
so  enervating  an  influence  that  man,  absorbed  by  present  enjoy- 
ment, was  rendered  regardless  of  the  future. 

North  America  appeared  under  a  very  different  aspect ;  there 
everything  was  grave,  serious,  and  solemn:  it  seemed  created 
to  be  the  domain  of  intelligence,  as  the  South  was  that  of 
sensual    delight.     A  turbulent  and  foggy  ocean  washed  its 


e  Malte  Brun  tells  us  (vol.  v.  p.  726) 
that  the  water  of  the  Caribbean  Sea  is 
so  transparent  that  corals  and  fish  are 
discernible  at  a  depth  of  sixty  fathoms. 
The  ship  seemerl  to  float  in  air,  the  navi- 
gator became   giddy  as  his   eye  pene- 


trated  through    the   crystal   flood,    and 
beheld  submarine  gardens,  or  beds  of 
shells,   or  gilded   fishes   gliding  among 
tufts  and  thickets  of  seaweed. 
/  See  Appendix,  B. 


I 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


•I 


V 


shores.  It  was  girt  round  by  a  belt  of  granite  rocks,  or  by 
wide  tracts  of  sand.  The  foliage  of  its  woods  was  dark  and 
gloomy,  for  they  were  composed  of  firs,  larches,  evergreen 
oaks,  wild  olive-trees,  and  laurels.  Beyond  this  outer  belt 
lay  the  thick  shades  of  the  central  forest,  where  the  largest 
trees  which  are  produced  in  the  two  hemispheres  grow  side  by 
side.  The  plane,  the  catalpa,  the  sugar-maple,  and  the  Vir 
ginian  poplar  mingled  their  branches  with  those  of  the  oak, 
the  beech,  and  the  lime.  In  these,  as  in  the  forests  of  the  Old 
World,  destruction  was  perpetually  going  on.  The  ruins  of 
vegetation  were  heaped  upon  each  other;  but  there  was  no 
laboring  h?:id  to  remove  them,  and  their  decay  was  not  rapid 
enough  to  make  room  for  the  continual  work  of  reproduction. 
Climbing  plants,  grasses,  and  other  herbs  forced  their  way 
through  the  mass  of  dying  trees ;  they  crept  along  their  bend  - 
ing  trui>ks,  found  nourishment  in  their  dusty  cavities,  and  a 
passage  beneath  the  lifeless  bark.  Thus  decay  gave  its  assist- 
ance to  life,  and  their  respective  productions  were  mingled 
together.  The  depths  of  these  forests  were  gloomy  and  ob- 
scure, and  a  thousand  rivulets,  undirected  in  their  course  by 
human  industry,  preserved  in  them  a  constant  moisture.  It 
was  rare  to  meet  with  flowers,  wild  fruits,  or  birds  beneath  their 
shades.  The  fall  of  a  tree  overthrown  by  age,  the  rushing  tor- 
rent of  a  cataract,  the  lowing  of  the  buffalo,  and  the  howling 
of  the  wind  were  the  only  sounds  which  broke  the  silence  of 
nature. 

To  the  east  of  the  great  river,  the  woods  almost  disappeared : 
in  their  stead  were  seen  prairies  of  immense  extent.  Whether 
Nature  in  her  infinite  variety  had  denied  the  germs  of  trees  to 
these  fertile  plains,  or  whether  they  had  once  been  covered 
with  forests,  subsequently  destroyed  by  the  hand  of  man,  is  a 
question  which  neither  tradition  nor  scientific  research  has  been 
able  to  resolve. 

These  immense  deserts  were  not,  however,  devoid  of  human 
inhabitants.  Some  wandering  tribes  had  been  for  ages  scat- 
tered among  the  forest  shades  or  the  green  pastures  of  the 
prairie.  From  the  mouth  of  the  St.  Lawrence  to  the  delta  of 
the  Mississippi,  and  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific  Ocean, 
these  savages  possessed  certain  points  of  resemblance  which 
bore  witness  of  their  common  origin ;  but  at  the  same  time  they 


(ill 


1 1 


I 
I 


i 


M 


i2 


DE  TOCQUEVILLR 


t^  ' 


l.fr 


(lifTcrcd  from  all  other  known  races  of  men  :g  they  were  neither 
white  like  the  ICuropcans,  nor  yellow  like  most  of  the  Asiatics, 
nor  black  like  the  negroes.  Their  skin  was  reddish  brown, 
their  hair  long  and  shining,  their  lips  thin,  and  their  cheek- 
bones very  prominent.  The  languages  spoken  by  the  North 
American  tribes  are  various  as  far  as  regarded  their  words, 
but  they  were  subject  to  the  same  grammatical  rules.  These 
rules  differed  in  several  points  from  such  as  had  been  observed 
to  govern  the  origin  of  language.  The  idiom  of  the  Americans 
.seemed  to  be  the  product  of  new  combinations,  and  !)espoke 
an  efifort  of  the  understanding  of  which  the  Indians  of  our  days 
would  be  incapable.* 

The  social  state  of  these  tribes  differed  also  in  many  respects 
from  all  that  was  seen  in  the  Old  World.  They  seemed  to  have 
multiplied  freely  in  the  midst  of  their  deserts  without  coming 
in  contact  with  other  races  more  civilized  than  their  own.  Ac- 
cordingly, they  exhibited  none  of  those  indistinct,  incoherent 
notions  of  right  and  wrong,  none  of  that  deep  corruption  of 
manners,  which  is  usually  joined  with  ignorance  and  rudeness 
among  nations  which,  after  advancing  to  civilization,  have  re- 
lapsed into  a  state  of  barbarism.  The  Indian  was  indebted  to 
no  one  but  himself;  his  virtues,  his  vices,  and  his  prejudices 
were  his  own  work ;  he  had  grown  up  in  the  wild  independence 
of  his  nature. 

Tf,  in  polished  countries,  the  lowest  of  the  people  are  rude 
and  uncivil,  it  is  not  merely  because  they  are  poor  and  ignorant, 
but  that,  being  so,  they  are  in  daily  contact  with  rich  and  en- 
lightened men.  The  sight  of  their  own  hard  lot  and  of  their 
weakness,  which  is  daily  contrasted  with  the  happiness  and 
power  of  some  of  their  fellow-creatures,  excites  in  their  hearts 
at  the  same  time  the  sentiments  of  anger  and  of  fear :  the  con- 
sciousness of  their  inferiority  and  of  their  dependence  irritates 
while  it  humiliates  them.  This  state  of  mind  displays  itself  in 
their  manners  and  language;  they  are  at  once  insolent  and 
servile.     The  truth  of  this  is  easily  proved  by  observation ; 


g  With  the  progress  of  discovery  some 
resemblance  has  been  found  to  exist  be- 
tween the  physical  conformation,  the 
language,  and  the  habits  of  the  Indians 
of  North  America,  and  those  of  the 
Tongous,  Mantchous,  Mongols,  Tar- 
tars, and  other  wandering  tribes  of 
Asia.  The  land  occupied  by  these 
tribes  is  not  very  distant  from  Behring's 
Strait,  which  allows  of  the  supposition. 


that  at  a  remote  period  they  gave  in- 
habitants to  the  desert  continent  of 
America.  But  this  is  a  point  which  has 
not  yet  been  clearly  elucidated  by 
science.  See  Malte  Brun,  vol.  v.;  the 
works  of  Humboldt;  Fischer,  "Conjec- 
ture sur  rOrigine  des  Americains"; 
Adair,  "  History  of  the  American  In* 
dians." 
h  See  Appendix,  C. 


il'l 


DEMOCRACY   IN   AMERICA 


•3 


the  people  arc  more  rude  in  aristocratic  countries  than  else- 
where, in  opulent  cities  than  in  rural  districts.  In  those  places 
where  the  rich  and  powerful  are  assembled  together  the  weak 
and  the  indigent  feel  themselves  oppressed  by  their  inferior 
condition.  Unable  to  perceive  a  single  chance  of  regaining 
their  equality,  they  give  up  to  <lcspair,  and  allow  themselves  to 
fall  below  the  dignity  of  human  nature. 

This  unfortunate  efifect  of  the  disparity  of  conditions  is  not 
observable  in  savage  life:  the  Indians,  although  they  are 
ignorant  and  poor,  are  equal  and  free.  At  the  period  when 
Europeans  first  came  among  them  the  natives  of  North  Amer- 
ica were  ignorant  of  the  value  of  riches,  and  indiflferent  to  the 
enjoyments  which  civilized  man  procures  to  himself  by  their 
means.  Nevertheless  there  was  nothing  coarse  in  their  de- 
meanor ;  they  practised  an  habitual  reserve  and  a  kind  of  aristo- 
cratic politeness.  Mild  and  hospitable  when  at  peace,  though 
merciless  in  war  beyond  any  known  degree  of  human  ferocity, 
the  Indian  would  expose  himself  to  die  of  hunger  in  order  to 
succor  the  stranger  who  asked  admittance  by  night  at  the  door 
of  his  hut ;  yet  he  could  tear  in  pieces  with  his  hands  the  still 
quivering  limbs  of  his  prisoner.  The  famous  republics  of 
antiquity  never  gave  exn'  pies  of  more  unshaken  courage, 
more  haughty  spirits,  c  aiore  intractable  love  of  independence 
than  were  hidden  in  former  times  among  the  wild  forests  of  the 
New  World.!  The  Europeans  produced  no  great  impression 
when  they  landed  upon  the  shores  of  North  America;  their 
presence  engendered  neither  envy  nor  fear.  What  influence 
could  they  possess  over  such  men  as  we  have  described  ?  The 
Indian  could  live  without  wants,  suffer  without  complaint,  and 
pour  out  his  death-song  at  the  stake.;'  Like  all  the  other  mem- 
bers of  the  great  human  family,  these  savages  telieved  in  the 
existence  of  a  better  world,  and  adored,  under  different  names, 


I 


'\ 


■  I 


U. 
^ 


)'!'• 


»^ 


m; 

in- 

of 

I  has 

I  the 
Ijec- 

lln- 


i  We  learn  from  President  Jefferson's 
"  Notes  upon  Virginia,"  p.  148,  that 
among  the  Iroquois,  when  attacked  by 
a  superior  force,  aged  men  refused  to 
fly  or  to  survive  the  destruction  of  their 
country;  and  they  braved  death  like  the 
ancient  Romans  when  their  capital  was 
lacked  by  the  Gauls.  Further  on,  p. 
150,  he  tells  us  that  there  is  no  example 
01  an  Indian  who,  having  fallen  into  the 
hands  of  his  enemies,  begged  for  his 
life;  on  the  contrary,  the  captive  sought 
to  obtain  death  at  the  hands  of  his 
conquerors  by  the  use  of  insult  and 
provocation. 


.'.,     by 
''  His- 


»■  See  "  Histoire  de  la  Louisiane,' 
Lepage  Dupratz  ;  Charlevoix, 
toire  de  la  Nouvelle  France";  "  Let- 
tres  du  Rev.  G.  Hecwelder  ;"  "  Trans- 
actions of  the  American  Philosophical 
Societjf,"  V.  I  ;  Jefferson's  "  Notes  on 
Vir/?inia,"  pp.  135-190.  What  is  said  by 
Jefferson  is  of  especial  weight,  on  ac- 
count of  the  personal  merit  of  the 
writer,  of  his  peculiar  position,  and  of 
the  matter-of-fact  age  in  which  he  lived. 


?        i   1 


fe 


34 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


Ul' 


■(;' 


m 

\ 


God,  the  creator  of  the  universe.  Their  notions  on  the  great 
intellectual  truths  were  in  general  simple  and  philosophical.* 

Although  we  have  here  traced  the  character  of  a  primitive 
people,  yet  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  another  people,  more 
civilized  and  more  advanced  in  all  respects,  had  preceded  it  in 
the  same  regions. 

An  obscure  tradition  which  prevailed  among  the  Indians  to 
the  north  of  the  Atlantic  informs  us  that  these  very  tribes 
formerly  dwelt  on  the  west  side  of  the  Mississippi.  Along  the 
banks  of  the  Ohio,  and  throughout  the  central  valley,  there  are 
frequently  found,  at  this  day,  tumuli  raised  by  the  hands  of 
men.  On  exploring  these  heaps  of  earth  to  their  centre,  it  is 
usual  to  meet  with  human  bones,  strange  instruments,  arms 
and  utensils  of  all  kinds,  made  of  metal,  or  destined  for  pur- 
poses unknown  to  the  present  race.  The  Indians  of  our  time 
are  unable  to  give  any  information  relative  to  the  history  of 
this  unknown  people.  Neither  did  those  who  lived  three  hun- 
dred years  ago,  when  America  was  first  discovered,  leave  any 
accounts  from  which  even  an  hypothesis  could  be  formed. 
Tradition — that  perishable,  yet  ever  renewed  monument  of  the 
pristine  world — throws  no  light  upon  the  subject.  It  is  an 
undoubted  fact,  however,  that  in  this  part  of  the  globe  thou- 
sands of  our  fellow-beings  had  lived.  When  they  came  hither, 
what  was  their  origin,  their  destiny,  their  history,  and  how 
they  perished,  no  one  can  tell.  How  strange  does  it  appear 
that  nations  have  existed,  and  afterwards  so  completely  dis- 
appeared from  the  earth  that  the  remem^iCice  of  their  very 
names  is  effaced ;  their  languages  are  Iojsl  ,  ..leir  glory  is  van- 
ished like  a  sound  without  an  echo;  though  perhaps  there  is 
not  one  which  has  not  left  behind  it  some  tomb  in  memory  of 
its  passage !  The  most  durable  monument  of  human  labor  is 
that  which  recalls  the  wretchedness  and  nothingness  of  man. 

Although  the  vast  country  which  we  have  been  describing 
was  inhabited  by  many  indigenous  tribes,  it  may  justly  be  said 
at  the  time  of  its  discovery  by  Europeans  to  have  formed  one 
great  desert.  The  Indians  occupied  without  possessing  it.  It 
is  by  agricultural  labor  that  man  appropriates  the  soil,  and  the 
early  inhabitants  of  North  America  lived  by  the  produce  of  the 
chase.  Their  implacable  prejudices,  their  uncontrolled  pas- 
sions, their  rices,  and  still  more  perhaps  their  savage  virtues, 

k  See  Appendix,  D. 


%■ 


M 


'  1 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


25 


consigned  them  to  inevitable  destruction.  The  ruin  of  these 
nations  began  from  the  day  when  Europeans  landed  on  their 
shores ;  it  has  proceeded  ever  since,  and  we  are  now  witnessing 
the  completion  of  it.  They  seem  to  have  been  placed  by  Provi- 
dence amidst  the  riches  of  the  New  World  to  enjoy  them  for  a 
season,  and  then  surrender  them.  Those  coasts,  so  admirably 
adapted  for  commerce  and  industry;  those  wide  and  deep 
rivers ;  that  inexhaustible  valley  of  the  Mississippi ;  the  whole 
continent,  in  short,  seemed  prepared  to  be  the  abode  of  a  great 
nation,  yet  unborn. 

In  that  land  the  great  experiment  was  to  be  made,  by  civilized 
man,  of  the  attempt  to  construct  society  upon  a  new  basis ;  and 
it  was  there,  for  the  first  time,  that  theories  hitherto  unknown, 
or  deemed  impracticable,  were  to  exhibit  a  spectacle  for  which 
the  world  had  not  been  prepared  by  the  history  of  the  past. 


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ii 


CHAPTER  II 

ORIGIN  OF  THE  ANGLO-AMERICANS,  AND  ITS  IMPOR- 
TANCE IN  RELATION  TO  THEIR  FUTURE  CONDITION 

Utility  of  knowing  the  origin  of  nations  in  order  to  understand  their 
social  condition  and  their  laws — America  the  only  country  in  which 
the  starting-point  of  a  great  people  has  been  clearly  observable — 
In  what  respects  all  who  emigrated  to  British  America  were  similar 
— In  what  they  differed — Remark  applicable  to  all  Europeans  who 
established  themselves  on  the  shores  of  the  New  World — Coloniza- 
tion of  Virginia — Colonization  of  New  England — Original  char- 
acter of  the  first  inhabitants  of  New  England — Their  arrival — 
Their  first  laws — Their  social  contract— Penal  code  borrowed  from 
the  Hebrew  legislation — Religious  fervor — Republican  spirit — In- 
timate union  of  the  spirit  of  religion  with  the  spirit  of  liberty. 

AFTER  the  birth  of  a  human  being  his  early  years  are 
obscurely  spent  in  the  toils  or  pleasures  of  childhood. 
As  he  grows  up  the  world  receives  him.  when  his 
manhood  begins,  and  he  enters  into  contact  with  his  fel- 
lows. He  is  then  studied  for  the  first  time,  and  it  is  imagined 
that  the  germ  of  the  vices  and  the  virtues  of  his  maturer  years 
is  then  formed.  This,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  is  a  great  error. 
We  must  begin  higher  up;  we  must  watch  the  infant  in  its 
mother's  arms ;  we  must  see  the  first  images  which  the  external 
world  casts  upon  the  dark  mirror  of  his  mind ;  the  first  occur- 
rences which  he  witnesses ;  we  must  hear  the  first  words  which 
awaken  the  sleeping  powers  of  thought,  and  stand  by  his  earliest 
efforts,  if  we  would  understand  the  prejudices,  the  habits,  and 
the  passions  which  will  rule  his  life.  The  entire  man  is,  so  to 
speak,  to  be  seen  in  the  cradle  of  the  child. 

The  growth  of  nations  presents  something  analogous  to  this : 
they  all  bear  some  marks  of  their  origin ;  and  the  circumstances 
which  accompanied  their  birth  and  contributed  to  their  rise 
aflfcct  the  whole  term  of  their  being.  If  we  were  able  to  go 
back  to  the  elements  of  states,  and  to  examine  the  oldest  monu- 
ments of  their  history,  I  doubt  not  that  we  should  discover 
the  primal  cause  of  the  prejudices,  the  habits,  the  ruling  pas- 

26 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


91 


ptons,  and,  in  short,  of  all  that  constitutes  what  is  called  the 
national  character;  we  should  then  find  the  explanation  of 
certain  customs  which  now  seem  at  variance  with  the  prevail- 
ing manners;  of  such  laws  as  conflict  with  established  prin- 
ciples ;  and  of  such  incoherent  opinions  as  are  here  and  there 
to  be  met  with  in  society,  like  those  fragments  of  broken  chains 
which  we  sometimes  see  hanging  from  the  vault  of  an  edifice, 
and  supporting  nothing.  This  might  explain  the  destinies  of 
certain  nations,  which  seem  borne  on  by  an  unknown  force 
to  ends  of  which  they  themselves  are  ignorant.  But  hitherto 
facts  have  been  wanting  to  researches  of  this  kind:  the  spirit 
of  inquiry  has  only  come  upon  communities  in  their  latter  days ; 
and  when  they  at  length  contemplated  their  origin,  time  had 
already  obscured  it,  or  ignorance  and  pride  adorned  it  with 
truth-concealing  fables. 

America  is  the  only  country  in  which  it  has  been  possible 
to  witness  the  natural  and  tranquil  growth  of  society,  and  where 
the  influences  exercised  on  the  future  condition  of  states  by 
their  origin  is  clearly  distinguishable.  At  the  period  when  the 
peoples  of  Europe  landed  in  the  New  World  their  national 
characteristics  were  already  completely  formed ;  each  of  them 
had  a  physiognomy  of  its  own;  and  as  they  had  already  at- 
tained that  stage  of  civilization  at  which  men  are  led  to  study 
themselves,  they  have  transmitted  to  us  a  faithful  picture  of 
their  opinions,  their  manners,  and  their  laws.  The  men  of  the 
sixteenth  century  are  almost  as  well  known  to  us  as  our  con- 
temporaries. America,  consequently,  exhibits  in  the  broad 
light  of  day  the  phenomena  which  the  ignorance  or  rudeness 
of  earlier  ages  conceals  from  our  researches.  Near  enough  to 
the  time  when  the  states  of  America  were  founded,  to  be  ac- 
curately acquainted  with  their  elements,  and  sufficiently  re- 
moved from  that  period  to  judge  of  some  of  their  results,  the 
men  of  our  own  day  seem  destined  to  see  further  than  their 
predecessors  into  the  series  of  human  events.  Providence  has 
given  us  a  torch  which  our  forefathers  did  not  possess,  and  has 
allowed  us  to  discern  fundamental  causes  in  the  history  of  the 
world  which  the  obscurity  of  the  past  concealed  from  them.  If 
we  carefully  examine  the  social  and  political  state  of  America, 
after  having  studied  its  history,  we  shall  remain  perfectly  con- 
vinced that  not  an  opinion,  not  a  custom,  not  a  law,  I  may  even 
say  not  an  event,  is  upon  record  which  the  origin  of  that  people 


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38 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


will  not  explain.  The  readers  of  this  book  will  find  the  germ  of 
all  that  is  to  follow  in  the  present  chapter,  and  the  key  to  almost 
the  whole  work. 

The  emigrants  who  came,  at  different  periods  to  occupy  the 
territory  now  covered  by  the  American  Union  differed  from 
each  other  in  many  respects;  their  aim  was  not  the  same,  and 
they  governed  themselves  on  different  principles.  These  men 
had,  however,  certain  features  in  common,  and  they  were  all 
placed  in  an  analogous  situation.  The  tie  of  language  is  per- 
haps the  strongest  and  the  most  durable  that  can  unite  man- 
kind. All  the  emigrants  spoke  the  same  tongue ;  they  were  all 
offsets  from  the  same  people.  Born  in  a  country  which  had 
been  agitated  for  centuries  by  the  struggles  of  faction,  and  in 
which  all  parties  had  been  obliged  in  their  turn  to  place  them- 
selves under  the  protection  of  the  laws,  their  political  education 
had  been  perfected  in  this  rude  school,  and  they  were  more 
conversant  with  the  notions  of  right  and  the  principles  of  true 
freedom  than  the  greater  part  of  their  European  contempor- 
aries. At  the  period  of  their  first  emigrations  the  parish  sys- 
tem, that  fruitful  germ  of  free  institutions,  was  deeply  rooted  in 
the  habits  of  the  English;  and  with  it  the  doctrine  of  the 
sovereignty  of  the  people  had  been  introduced  into  the  bosom 
of  the  monarchy  of  the  House  of  Tudor. 

The  religious  quarrels  which  have  agitated  the  Christian 
world  were  then  rife.  England  had  plunged  into  the  new  order 
of  things  with  headlong  vehemence.  The  character  of  its  in- 
habitants, which  had  always  been  sedate  and  reflective,  became 
argumentative  and  austere.  General  information  had  been 
increased  by  intellectual  debate,  and  the  mind  had  received  a 
deeper  cultivation.  Whilst  religion  was  the  topic  of  discussion, 
the  morals  of  the  people  were  reformed.  All  these  national 
features  are  more  or  less  discoverable  in  the  physiognomy  of 
those  adventurers  who  came  to  seek  a  new  home  on  the  opposite 
shores  of  the  Atlantic. 

Another  remark,  to  which  we  shall  hereafter  have  occasion 
to  recur,  is  applicable  not  only  to  the  English,  but  to  the 
French,  the  Spaniards,  and  all  the  Europeans  who  successively 
"tablished  themselves  in  the  New  World.  All  these  European 
colonies  contained  the  elements,  if  not  the  development,  of  a 
complete  democracy.  Two  causes  led  to  this  result.  It  may 
safely  be  advanced,  that  on  leaving  the  mother-country  the  emi- 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


a9 


grants  had  in  general  no  notion  of  superiority  over  one  another. 
The  happy  and  the  powerful  do  not  go  into  exile,  and  there  are 
no  surer  guarantees  of  equality  among  men  than  poverty  and 
misfortune.  It  happened,  however,  on  several  occasions,  that 
persons  of  rank  were  driven  to  America  by  political  and  re- 
ligious quarrels.  Laws  were  made  to  establish  a  gradation 
of  ranks ;  but  it  was  soon  found  that  the  soil  of  America  was 
opposed  to  a  territorial  aristocracy.  To  bring  that  refractory 
iand  into  cultivation,  the  constant  and  interested  exertions  of 
the  owner  himself  were  necessary ;  and  when  the  ground  was 
prepared,  its  produce  was  found  to  be  insufficient  to  enrich  a 
master  and  a  farmer  at  the  same  time.  The  land  was  then 
naturally  broken  up  into  small  portions,  which  the  proprietor 
cultivated  for  himself.  Lc;nd  is  the  basis  of  an  aristocracy, 
which  clings  to  the  soil  that  supports  it ;  for  it  is  not  by  privi- 
leges alone,  nor  by  birth,  but  by  landed  property  handed  down 
from  generation  to  generation,  that  an  aristocracy  is  consti- 
tuted. A  nation  may  present  immense  fortunes  and  extreme 
wretchedness,  but  unless  those  fortunes  are  territorial  there  is 
no  aristocracy,  but  simply  the  class  of  the  rich  and  that  of  the 
poor. 

All  the  British  colonies  had  then  a  great  degree  of  similarity 
at  the  epoch  of  their  settlement.  All  of  them,  from  their  first 
beginning,  seemed  destined  to  witness  the  growth,  not  of  the 
aristocratic  liberty  of  their  mother-country,  but  of  that  free- 
dom of  the  middle  and  lower  orders  of  which  the  history  of  the 
world  had  as  yet  furnished  no  complete  example. 

In  this  general  uniformity  several  striking  differences  were 
however  discernible,  which  it  is  necessary  to  point  out.  Two 
brandies  may  be  distinguished  in  the  Anglo-American  family, 
which  have  hitherto  grown  up  without  entirely  commingling; 
the  one  in  the  South,  the  other  in  the  North. 

Virginia  received  the  first  English  colony;  the  emigrants 
took  possession  of  it  in  1607.  The  idea  that  mines  of  gold 
and  silver  are  the  sources  of  national  wealth  was  at  that  time 
singularly  prevalent  in  Europe ;  a  fatal  delusion,  which  has 
done  more  to  impoverish  the  nations  which  adopted  it,  and  has 
cost  more  lives  in  America,  than  the  united  influence  of  war 
and  bad  laws.  The  men  sent  to  Virginia  o  were  seekers  of  gold, 


f 


( 


)• 


t: 

I- 


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J  > 

I- 


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ifi 


a  The  charter  granted  by  the  Crown 
of  England  in  1609  stipulated,  amongst 


other  conditions,   that   the   adventurers 
should  pay  to  the  Crown  a  fifth  of  the 


30 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


k 


Hi 


adventurers,  without  resources  and  without  character,  whose 
turbulent  and  restless  spirit  endangered  the  infant  colony ,*  and 
rendered  its  progress  uncertain.  The  artisans  and  agricultur- 
ists arrived  afterwards ;  and,  although  they  were  a  more  moral 
and  orderly  race  of  men,  they  were  in  nowise  above  the  level 
of  the  inferior  classes  in  England.c  No  lofty  conceptions,  no 
intellectual  system,  directed  the  foundation  of  these  new  settle- 
ments. The  colony  was  scarcely  established  when  slavery  was 
introduced,^  and  this  was  the  main  circumstance  which  has  ex- 
ercised so  prodigious  an  influence  on  the  character,  the  laws, 
and  all  the  future  prospects  of  the  South.  Slavery,  as  we  shall 
afterwards  show,  dishonors  labor;  it  introduces  idlenes's  into 
society,  and  with  idleness,  ignorance  and  pride,  luxury  and  dis- 
tress. It  enervates  the  powers  of  the  mind,  and  benumbs  the 
activity  of  man.  The  influence  of  slavery,  united  to  the  Eng- 
lish character,  explains  the  manners  and  the  social  condition  of 
the  Southern  States. 

In  the  North,  the  same  English  foundation  was  modified  by 
the  most  opposite  shades  of  character ;  and  here  I  may  be  al- 
lowed to  enter  into  some  details.  The  two  or  three  main  ideas 
which  constitute  the  basis  of  the  social  theory  of  the  United 
States  were  first  combined  in  the  Northern  English  colonies, 
more  generally  denominated  the  States  of  New  England.^  The 
principles  of  New  England  spread  at  first  to  the  neighboring 
states ;  they  then  passed  successively  to  the  more  distant  ones ; 
and  at  length  they  imbued  the  whole  Confederation.  They  now 
extend  their  influence  beyond  its  limits  over  the  whole  Ameri- 
can world.  The  civilization  of  New  England  has  been  like  a 
beacon  lit  upon  a  hill,  which,  after  it  has  diffused  its  warmth 
around,  tinges  the  distant  horizon  with  its  glow. 

The  foundation  of  New  England  was  a  novel  spectacle,  and 


§rociuce  of  all  cold  and  silver  mines, 
ee  Marshall's  "  Life  of  Washington," 
vol.  i.  pp.  i8-66. 

b  A  large  portion  of  the  adventurers, 
says  Stith  ("  History  of  Virginia "), 
were  unprincipled  young  men  of  family, 
whom  tneir  parents  were  glad  to  ship 
off,  discharged  servants,  fraudulent 
bankrupts,  or  debauchies ;  and  others  of 
the  same  class,  people  more  apt  to 
pillage  and  destroy  than  to  assist  the 
settlement,  were  the  seditious  chiefs, 
who  easily  led  this  hand  into  every  kind 
of  extravagance  and  excess.  See  for 
the  history  of  Virginia  the  following 
works : — 

"  History  of  Virginia,  from  the  First 
Settlements  in  the  year  1624,"  b    '^mith. 


"  History  of  Virginia,"  by  William 
Stith. 

"  History  of  Virginia,  from  the  Ear- 
liest Period,"  by  Beverley. 

c  It  was  not  till  some  time  later  that 
a  certain  number  of  rich  English  capital- 
ists came  to  fix  themselves  in  the  colony. 

d  Slavery  was  introduced  about  the 
year  1620  by  a  Dutch  vessel  which  landed 
twenty  negroes  on  the  banks  of  the  river 
JamoB.     See  Ch'almer. 

c  The  States  of  New  England  are  those 
situated  to  the  east  of  the  Hudson  ; 
they  are  now  six  in  number  :  i,  Con- 
necticut ;  2,  Rhode  Island  :  3,  Massa- 
chusetts; 4,  Vermont;  5,  New  Hamp- 
shire ;  6,  Maine. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


3t 


all  the  circumstances  attending  it  were  singular  and  original. 
The  large  majority  of  colonies  have  been  first  inhabited  either 
by  men  without  education  and  without  resources,  driven  by 
their  poverty  and  their  misconduct  from  the  land  which  gave 
them  birth,  or  by  speculators  and  adventurers  greedy  of  gain. 
Some  settlements  cannot  even  boast  so  honorable  an  origin; 
St.  Domingo  was  founded  by  buccaneers;  and  the  criminal 
courts  of  England  originally  supplied  the  population  of  Aus- 
tralia. 

The  settlers  who  established  themselves  on  the  shores  of 
New  England  all  belonged  to  the  more  independent  classes 
of  their  native  country.  Their  union  on  the  soil  of  America 
at  once  presented  the  singular  ph  '-^r^enon  of  a  society  con- 
taining neither  lords  nor  common  p  uic,  neither  rich  nor  poor. 
These  men  possessed,  in  proportion  to  their  number,  a  greater 
mass  of  intelligence  than  is  to  be  found  in  any  European  nation 
of  our  own  time.  All,  without  a  single  exception,  had  received 
a  good  education,  and  many  of  them  were  known  in  Europe 
for  their  talents  and  their  acquirements.  The  other  colonies 
had  been  founded  by  adventurers  without  family;  the  emi- 
grants of  New  England  brought  with  them  the  best  elements 
of  order  and  morality — they  landed  in  the  desert  accompanied 
by  their  wives  and  children.  But  what  most  especially  dis- 
tinguished them  was  the  aim  of  their  undertaking.  They  had 
not  been  obliged  by  necessity  to  leave  their  country ;  the  social 
position  they  abandoned  was  one  to  be  regretted,  and  their 
means  of  subsistence  were  certain.  Nor  did  they  cross  the  At- 
lantic to  improve  their  situation  or  to  increase  their  wealth; 
the  call  which  summoned  them  from  the  comforts  of  their  homes 
was  purely  intellectual ;  and  in  facing  the  inevitable  sufferings 
of  exile  their  object  was  the  triumph  of  an  idea. 

The  emigrants,  or,  as  they  deservedly  styled  themselves,  the 
Pilgrims,  belonged  to  that  English  sect  the  austerity  of  whose 
principles  had  acquired  for  them  the  name  of  Puritans.  Puri- 
tanism was  not  merely  a  religious  doctrine,  but  it  corresponded 
in  many  points  with  the  most  absolute  democratic  and  republi- 
can theories.  It  was  this  tendency  which  had  aroused  its  most 
dangerous  adversaries.  Persecuted  by  the  Government  of  the 
mother-country,  and  disgusted  by  the  habits  of  a  society  op- 
posed to  the  rigor  of  their  own  principles,  the  Puritans  went 
forth  to  seek  some  rude  and  unfrequented  part  of  the  world, 


'1 


!* 


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4 


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1     1 


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32 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


where  they  could  live  according  to  their  own  opinions,  and 
worship  God  in  freedom. 

A  few  quotations  will  throw  more  light  upon  the  spirit  of 
these  pious  adventurers  thar  ,  11  we  can  say  of  them.  Nathan- 
iel Morton/  the  historian  of  the  first  years  of  the  settlement, 
thus  opens  his  subjei  t : 

"  Gentle  Reader, — I  have  for  some  length  of  time  looked  upon 
it  as  a  duty  incumoent,  especially  on  the  immediate  successors 
of  those  that  have  had  so  large  experience  of  those  many  mem- 
orable and  signal  demonstratioas  of  God's  goodness,  viz.,  the 
first  beginners  of  this  Plantation  in  New  England,  to  commit 
to  writing  his  gracious  dispensations  on  that  behalf;  having 
so  many  inducements  thereunto,  not  onely  otherwise  but  so 
plentifully  in  the  Sacred  Scriptures :  that  so,  what  we  have  seen, 
and  what  our  fathers  have  told  us  (Psalm  Ixxvili.  3,  4),  we  may 
not  hide  from  our  children,  showing  to  the  generations  to 
come  the  praises  of  the  Lord ;  that  especially  the  seed  of  Abra- 
ham his  servant,  and  the  children  of  Jacob  his  chosen  (Psalm 
cv.  5,  6),  may  remember  his  marvellous  works  in  the  beginnin' 
and  progress  of  the  planting  of  New  England,  his  wonders  and 
the  judgments  of  his  mouth ;  how  that  God  brought  a  vine  into 
this  wilderness ;  that  he  cast  out  the  heathen,  and  planted  it ; 
that  he  made  room  for  it  and  caused  it  to  take  deep  root ;  and 
it  filled  the  land  (Psalm  Ixxx.  8, 9).  And  not  onely  so,  but  also 
that  he  hath  guided  his  people  by  his  strength  to  his  holy  habi- 
tation and  planted  them  in  the  mountain  of  liis  inheritance  in  re- 
spect of  precious  Gospel  enjoyments:  and  that  as  especially 
God  may  have  the  glory  of  all  unto  whom  it  is  most  due ;  so 
also  some  rays  of  glory  may  reach  the  names  of  those  blessed 
Saints  that  were  the  main  instruments  and  the  beginning  of 
this  happy  enterprise." 

It  is  impossible  to  read  this  opening  paragraph  without  an 
involuntary  feeling  of  religious  awe ;  it  breathes  the  very  savor 
of  Gospel  antiquity.  The  sincerity  of  the  author  heightens  his 
power  of  language.  The  band  which  to  his  eyes  was  a  mere 
party  of  adventurers  gone  forth  to  seek  their  fortune  beyond 
seas  appears  to  the  reader  as  the  germ. of  a  great  nation  wafted 
by  Providence  to  a  predestined  shore. 

^"New  England's  Memorial,"  p.  13;  Boston,   1826.   See  also  "Hutchinson's 
History,"  vol.  ii.  p.  440. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


33 


The  author  thus  continues  his  narrative  of  the  departure  of 
the  first  pilgrims : — 

*'  So  they  left  that  goodly  and  pleasant  city  of  Leyden,«  which 
had  been  their  resting-place  for  above  eleven  years ;  but  they 
knew  that  they  were  pilgrims  and  strangers  here  below,  and 
looked  not  much  on  these  things,  but  lifted  up  their  eyes  to 
Heaven,  their  dearest  country,  where  God  hath  prepared  for 
them  a  city  (Heb.  xi.  i6),  and  therein  quieted  their  spirits. 
When  they  came  to  Delfs-Haven  they  found  the  ship  and  all 
things  ready ;  and  such  of  their  friends  as  could  not  come  with 
them  followed  after  them,  and  sundry  came  from  Amsterdam 
to  see  them  shipt,  and  to  take  their  leaves  of  them.  One  night 
was  spent  with  little  sleep  with  the  most,  but  with  friendly  en- 
tertainment and  Christian  discourse,  and  other  real  expressions 
of  true  Christian  love.  The  next  day  they  went  on  board,  and 
their  friends  with  them,  where  truly  doleful  was  the  sight  of  that 
sad  and  mournful  parting,  to  hear  what  sighs  and  sobs  and 
prayers  did  sound  amongst  them ;  what  tears  did  gush  from 
every  eye,  and  pithy  speeches  pierced  each  other's  heart,  that 
sundry  of  the  Dutch  strangers  that  stood  on  the  Key  as  specta- 
tors could  not  refrain  from  tears.  But  the  tide  (which  stays  for 
no  man)  calling  them  away,  that  were  thus  loth  to  depart,  their 
Reverend  Pastor  falling  down  on  his  knees,  and  they  all  with 
him,  with  watery  cheeks  commended  them  with  most  fervent 
prayers  unto  the  Lord  and  his  blessing ;  and  then,  with  mutual 
embraces  and  many  tears  they  took  their  leaves  one  of  another, 
which  proved  to  be  the  last  leave  to  many  of  them." 

The  emigrants  were  about  150  in  number,  including  the 
women  and  the  children.  Their  object  was  to  plant  a  colony 
on  the  shores  of  the  Hudson;  but  after  having  been  driven 
about  for  some  time  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  they  were  forced 
to  land  on  that  arid  coast  of  New  England  which  is  now  the 
site  of  the  town  of  Plymouth.  The  rock  is  still  shown  on  which 
the  pilgrims  disembarked.* 


g  The  emigrants  were,  for  the  most 
part,  godly  Christians  from  the  North  of 
England,  who  had  quitted  their  native 
country  because  they  were  "  studious  of 
reformation,  and  entered  into  covenant 
to  walk  with  one  another  according  to 
the  primitive  pattern  of  the  Word  of 
God.  They  emigrated  to  Holland,  and 
settled  in  the  city  of  Leyden  in  1610, 
where  they  abode,  being  lovingly  re- 
spected by  the  Dutch,  for  many  years  : 
they  left  it  in  1620  for  several  reasons, 

Vol.  I.— 3 


the  last  of  which  was,  that  their  pos> 
terity  would  in  a  few  generations  be- 
come Dutch,  and  so  lose  their  interest 
in  the  English  nation  ;  they  being 
desirous  rather  to  enlarge  His  Majesty's 
dominions,  and  to  live  under  their 
natural   prince. — Translator's  Note. 

h  Thi  rock  is  become  an  object  of 
veneration  in  the  United  States.  I  have 
seen  bits  of  it  carefuU?;  preserved  in 
several  towns  of  the  Union.  Does  not 
this  sufficiently  show  how  entirely  all 


I 


!      •» 


% 


lit 


t 


UlltliiMIWlWl'a 


34 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


If    ' 


Pi: 


"  But  before  \vc  pass  on,"  continues  our  historian,  "  let  the 
reader  with  me  make  a  pause  and  seriously  consider  this  poor 
people's  present  condition,  the  more  to  be  raised  up  to  admira- 
tion of  God's  goodness  towards  them  in  their  preservation :  for 
being  now  passed  the  vast  ocean,  and  a  sea  of  troubles  before 
them  in  expectation,  they  had  now  no  friends  to  welcome  them, 
no  inns  to  entertain  or  refresh  them,  no  houses,  or  much  less 
towns  to  repair  unto  to  seek  for  succour :  and  for  the  season 
it  was  winter,  and  they  that  know  the  winters  of  the  country 
know  them  to  be  sharp  and  violent,  subject  to  cruel  and  fierce 
storms,  dangerous  to  travel  to  known  places,  much  more  to 
search  unknown  coasts.  Besides,  what  could  they  see  but  a 
hideous  and  desolate  wilderness,  full  of  wilde  beasts,  and  wilde 
men  ?  and  what  multitudes  of  them  there  were,  they  then  knew 
not :  for  which  way  soever  they  turned  their  eyes  (save  upward 
to  Heaven)  they  could  have  but  little  solace  or  content  in  re- 
spect of  any  outward  object;  for  summer  being  ended,  all 
things  stand  in  appearance  with  a  weather-beaten  face,  and  the 
whole  country  full  of  woods  and  thickets,  represented  a  wild  and 
savage  hew ;  if  they  looked  behind  them,  there  was  the  mighty 
ocean  which  they  had  passed,  and  was  now  as  a  main  bar  or 
gulph  to  separate  them  from  all  the  civil  parts  of  the  world." 

It  must  not  be  imagined  that  the  piety  of  the  Puritans  was  of 
a  merely  speculative  kind,  or  that  it  took  no  cognizance  of  the 
course  of  worldly  affairs.  Puritanism,  as  I  have  already  re- 
marked, was  scarcely  less  a  political  than  a  religious  doctrine. 
No  sooner  had  the  emigrants  landed  on  the  barren  coast  de- 
scribed by  Nathaniel  Morton  than  it  was  their  first  care  to  con- 
stitute a  society,  by  passing  the  following  Act : 

"  In  the  name  of  God.  Amen.  We,  whose  names  are  under- 
written, the  loyal  subjects  of  our  dread  Sovereign  Lord  King 
James,  etc.,  etc..  Having  undertaken  for  the  glory  of  God,  and 
advancement  of  the  Christian  Faith,  and  the  honour  of  our  King 
and  country,  a  voyage  to  plant  the  first  colony  in  the  northern 
parts  of  Virginia ;  Do  by  these  presents  solemnly  and  mutually, 
in  the  presence  of  God  and  one  another,  covenant .  nd  combine 
ourselves  together  into  a  civil  body  politick,  for  ou  better  order- 
ing and  preservation,  and  furtherance  of  the  ends  aforesaid: 


human  power  and  greatness  is  in  the 
soul  of  man?  Here  is  a  stone  wliicli 
tlie  feet  of  a  few  outcasts  presserl  for  an 
instant,  and  this  stone  becomes  famous  ; 


it  is  treasured  by  a  great  nation,  its 
very  dust  is  shared  as  a  relic  :  and  what 
is  become  of  the  gateways  of  a  thousand 
palaces? 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


35 


and  by  virtue  hereof  do  enact,  constitute  and  frame  such  just 
and  equal  laws,  ordinances,  acts,  constitutions,  and  officers, 
from  time  to  time,  as  shall  be  thought  most  meet  and  convenient 
for  the  general  good  of  the  Colony:  unto  which  we  promise 
all  due  submission  and  obedience,"  etc.* 

This  happened  in  1620,  and  from  that  time  forwards  the  emi- 
gration went  on.  The  religious  and  political  passions  which 
ravaged  the  British  Empire  during  the  whole  reign  of  Charles 
I  drove  fresh  crowds  of  sectarians  every  year  to  the  shores  of 
America.  In  England  the  stronghold  of  Puritanism  was  in  the 
middle  classes,  and  it  was  from  the  middle  classes  that  the  ma- 
jority of  the  emigrants  came.  The  population  of  New  Eng- 
land increased  rapidly ;  and  whilst  the  hierarchy  of  rank  despot- 
ically classed  the  inhabitants  of  the  mother-country,  the  colony 
continued  to  present  the  novel  spectacle  of  a  community  homo- 
geneous in  all  its  parts.  A  democracy,  more  perfect  than  any 
which  antiquity  had  dreamt  of,  started  in  full  size  and  panoply 
from  the  midst  of  an  ancient  feudal  society. 

The  English  Government  was  not  dissatisfied  with  an  emi- 
gration which  removed  the  elements  of  fresh  discord  and  of 
further  revolutions.  On  the  contrary,  everything  was  done 
to  encourage  it,  and  great  exertions  were  made  to  mitigate  the 
hardships  of  those  who  sought  a  shelter  from  the  rigor  of  their 
country's  laws  on  the  soil  of  America.  It  seemed  as  if  New 
England  was  a  region  given  up  to  the  dreams  of  fancy  and  the 
unrestrained  experiments  of  innovators. 

The  English  colonies  (and  this  is  one  of  the  main  causes  of 
their  prosperity)  have  always  enjoyed  more  internal  freedom 
and  more  political  independence  than  the  colonies  of  other  na- 
tions ;  but  this  principle  of  liberty  was  nowhere  more  extensive- 
ly applied  than  in  the  States  of  New  England. 

It  was  generally  allowed  at  chat  period  that  the  territories  of 
the  New  World  belonged  to  that  European  nation  which  had 
been  the  first  to  discover  them.  Nearly  the  whole  coast  of 
North  America  thus  became  a  British  possession  towards  the 
end  of  the  sixteenth  century.  The  means  used  by  the  English 
Government  to  people  these  new  domains  were  of  several  kinds ; 
the  King  sometimes  appointed  a  governor  of  his  own  choice, 


«■  The  emigrants  who  founded  the  State 
of  Rhode  Island  in  1638,  those  who 
landed  at  Nt.-  Haven  in  1637,  the  first 
settlers  in  Connecticut  in  1639,  and  the 
founders  of  Providence  in  1640,  began 


in  like  manner  by  drawinf?  up  a  social 
contract,  which  was  acceded  to  by  all 
the  interested  parties.  See  "  Pitkin's 
History,"  pp.  42  and  47. 


.? 


'/ 


/  ■* 


y 


'  •:! 


i> 


I! 
I  ■ 


:'»l 


36 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


I' 


who  ruled  a  portion  of  the  New  World  in  the  name  and  under 
the  immediate  orders  of  the  Crown  ;  i  this  is  the  colonial  systctn 
adopted  by  other  countries  of  Europe.  Sometimes  grants  of 
certain  tracts  were  made  by  the  Crown  to  an  individual  or  to  a 
company,^  in  which  case  all  the  civil  and  political  power  fell  into 
the  hands  of  one  or  more  persons,  who,  under  the  inspection  and 
control  of  the  Crown,  sold  the  lands  and  governed  the  inhab- 
itants. Lastly,  a  third  system  consisted  in  allowing  a  certain 
number  of  emigrants  to  constitute  a  political  society  under  the 
protection  of  the  mother-country,  and  to  govern  themselves  in 
whatever  was  not  contrary  to  her  laws.  This  mode  of  colo- 
nization, so  remarkably  favorable  to  liberty,  was  only  adopted 
in  New  England.' 

In  1628  m  a  charter  of  this  kind  was  granted  by  Charles  I 
to  the  emigrants  who  went  to  form  the  colony  of  Massachusetts. 
But,  in  general,  charters  were  not  given  to  the  colonies  of  New 
England  till  they  had  acquired  a  certain  existence.  Plymouth, 
Providence,  New  Haven,  the  State  of  Connecticut,  and  that  of 
Rhode  Island  «  were  founded  without  the  co-operation  and  al- 
most without  the  knowledge  of  the  mother-country.  The  new 
settlers  did  not  derive  their  incorporation  from  the  seat  of  the 
empire,  although  they  did  not  deny  its  supremacy;  they  con- 
stituted a  society  of  their  own  accord,  and  it  was  not  till  thirty 
or  forty  years  afterwards,  under  Charles  II.  that  their  existence 
was  legally  recognized  by  a  royal  charter. 

This  frequently  renders  it  difficult  to  detect  the  link  which 
connected  the  emigrants  with  the  land  of  their  forefathers  in 
studying  the  earliest  historical  and  legislative  records  of  New 
England.  They  exercised  the  rights  of  sovereignty;  they 
named  their  magistrates,  concluded  peace  or  declared  war,  made 


/This  was  the  case  In  the  State  of 
New  York. 

k  Maryland,  the  Carolinas,  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  New  Jersey  were  in  this  sit- 
uation. See  "  Pitkin's  History,"  vol.  i. 
pp.  11-31. 

I  See  the  work  entitled  "  Historical 
Collection  of  State  Papers  and  other 
authentic  Documents  intended  as  ma- 
terials for  a  History  of  the  United  States 
of  America,  by  Ebenezer  HasarJ.  Phila- 
delphia, 1792,''  for  a  great  number  of 
documents  relating  to  the  commence- 
ment of  the  colonies,  which  are  valuable 
from  their  contents  and  their  authenti- 
city: amonpst  them  are  the  various 
charters  granted  by  the  King  of  Eng- 
land, and  the  first  acts  of  the  local 
governments. 


See  also  the  analysis  of  all  these 
charters  given  by  Mr.  Story,  Judge  of 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
in  the  Introduction  to  his  "  Commen- 
tary on  the  Constitution  of  the  United 
States."  It  results  from  these  docu- 
ments that  the  principles  of  representa- 
tive government  and  the  external  forms 
of  political  liberty  were  introduced  into 
all  the  colonies  at  their  origin.  These 
principles  were  more  fully  acted  upon 
in  the  North  than  in  the  South,  hut 
they  existod  everywhere. 

m  See  "  Pitkin's  History,"  p.  35-  See 
the  "History  of  the  Colony  of  Massa- 
chusetts Bay,"  by  Hutchinson,  vol.  i. 
p.  9. 

n  See  "  Pitkin's  History,"  pp.  42.  47- 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMKRICA 


37 


police  regulations,  and  enacted  laws  as  if  their  allegiance  was 
due  only  to  God."  Nothing  can  he  more  curious  and,  at  the 
same  time  more  instructive,  than  the  legislation  of  that  period ; 
it  is  there  that  the  solution  of  the  great  social  problem  which  the 
United  States  now  present  to  the  world  is  to  be  found. 

Amongst  these  documents  we  shall  notice,  as  especially  char- 
acteristic, the  code  of  laws  promulgated  by  the  little  State  of 
Connecticut  in  i6$o.P  The  legislators  of  Connecticut?  begin 
with  the  penal  laws,  and,  strange  to  say,  they  borrow  their  pro- 
visions from  the  text  of  Holy  Writ.  "  Whosoever  shall  worship 
any  other  God  than  the  Lord,"  says  the  preamble  of  the  Code, 
"  shall  surely  be  put  to  death."  This  is  followed  by  ten  or  twelve 
enactments  of  the  same  kind,  copied  verbatim  from  the  books  of 
Exodus,  Leviticus,  and  Deuteronomy.  Blasphemy,  "orcery, 
adultery ,»"  and  rape  were  punished  with  death;  an  outrage 
offered  by  a  son  to  his  parents  was  to  'u;  expiated  by  the  same 
penalty.  The  legislation  of  a  rude  and  half-civilized  people  was 
thus  applied  to  an  enlightened  and  moral  comirunit;/.  The  con- 
sequence was  that  the  punishment  of  deat'i  was  ncer  more  fre- 
quently prescribed  by  the  statute,  and  never  more  rarel  en- 
forced towards  the  guilty. 

The  chief  care  of  the  legislators,  in  this  body  M  penal  laws, 
was  the  maintenance  of  orderly  conduct  and  ;o  -a  morals  in 
the  community:  they  constantly  invaded  the  lomain  of  con- 
science, and  there  was  scarcely  a  sin  which  was  not  subject  to 
magisterial  censure.  The  reader  is  aware  of  the  rigor  with 
which  these  laws  punished  rape  and  adultery ;  intercourse  be- 
tween unmarried  persons  was  likewise  severely  repressed.  The 
judge  was  empowered  to  inflict  a  pecuniary  penaUy,  a  whipping, 
or  marriage  s  on  the  misdemeanants ;  and  if  the  records  of  the 


o  The  inhabitants  of  Massachusetts 
had  deviated  from  thf  forms  which  are 
preserved  in  the  criminal  and  civil  pro- 
cedure of  England  ;  in  1650  the  decrees 
of  justice  were  not  yet  headed  by  the 
royal  style.  See  Hutchinson,  vol.  i.  p. 
452. 

p  Code  of  1650,  p.  28  ;  Hartford,  1830. 

a  See  also  in  "  Hutchinson's  History," 
vol.  i.  pp.  435,  456,  the  analysis  of  the 
penal  code  adopted  in  1648  by  the 
Colony  of  Massachusetts  :  this  code  is 
drawn  up  on  the  same  principles  as  that 
of  Connecticut. 

r  Adultery  was  also  punished  with 
death  by  the  law  of  Massachusett?  :  >  nci 
Hutchinson,  vol.  i.  p.  441,  says  that  sev- 
eral persons  actually  suffered  for  this 
crime.  He  quotes  a  curious  anecdote  on 
this  subject,  which  occ.irred  in  the  year 


1663.  A  married  woman  had  had  crimi- 
nal intercourse  with  a  young  man  ;  her 
husband  died,  and  she  married  the  lover. 
Several  years  had  elapsed,  when  the 
public  began  to  suspect  the  previous  in- 
tercourse of  this  couple  :  they  were 
th.  ■  v:;:  into  prison,  put  upon  trial,  and 
v:rj  '■■.'crowly  escaped  capital  punish- 
meui 

*  Code  of  1650,  p.  48.  It  seems  some- 
times to  have  happened  that  the  judges 
superadded  these  punishments  to  each 
other,  as  is  seen  in  a  sentence  pro- 
nounced in  1643  (p.  114,  "  New  Haven 
Antiquities  "),  by  which  Margaret  Bed- 
ford, convicted  of  loose  conduct,  was 
condemned  to  be  whipped,  and  after- 
wards to  marry  Nicholas  Jemmings,  her 
accomplice. 


38 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


III 


y 


cld  courts  of  New  Haven  may  be  believed,  prosecutions  of  this 
kind  were  not  unfrequent.  We  find  a  sentence  bearing  date  the 
first  of  May,  1660,  inflicting  a  fine  and  reprimand  on  a  young 
woman  who  was  accused  of  using  improper  language,  and  of 
allowing  herself  to  be  kissed.*  The  Code  of  1650  abounds  in 
preventive  measures.  It  punishes  idleness  and  drunkenness 
with  severity."  Innkeepers  are  forbidden  to  furnish  more  than 
a  certain  quantity  of  liquor  to  each  consumer ;  and  simple  ly- 
ing, whenever  it  may  be  injurious,^'  is  checked  by  a  fine  or  a 
flogging.  In  other  places,  the  legislator,  entirely  forgetting 
the  great  principles  of  religious  toleration  which  he  had  him- 
self upheld  in  Europe,  renders  attendance  on  divine  service 
compulsory .w  and  goes  so  far  as  to  visit  with  severe  punish- 
ment,* and  even  with  death,  the  Christians  who  chose  to  wor- 
ship God  according  to  a  ritual  differing  from  his  own.^  Some- 
times indeed  the  zeal  of  his  enactments  induces  him  to  descend 
to  the  most  frivolous  particulars :  thus  a  law  is  to  be  found  in 
the  same  Code  which  prohibits  the  use  of  tobacco.y  It  must 
not  be  forgotten  that  these  fantastical  and  vexatious  laws  were 
not  imposed  by  authority,  but  that  they  were  freely  voted  by 
all  the  persons  interested,  and  that  the  manners  of  the  com- 
munity were  even  more  austere  and  more  puritanical  than  the 
laws.  In  1649  a  solemn  association  was  formed  in  Boston  to 
check  the  worldly  luxury  of  long  hair .2 

These  errors  are  no  doubt  discreditable  to  human  reason; 
they  attest  the  inferiority  of  our  nature,  which  is  incapable  of 
laying  firm  hold  upon  what  is  true  and  just,  and  is  often  reduced 
to  the  alternative  of  two  excesses.  In  strict  connection  with  this 
penal  legislation,  which  bears  such  striking  marks  of  a  narrow 
sectarian  spirit,  and  of  those  religious  passions  which  had  been 
warmed  by  persecution  and  were  still  fermenting  among  the 


I "  New  Haven  Antiquities,"  p.  104. 
See  also  "  Hutchinson's  History,"  for 
several   causes  equally   extraordinary. 

«  Code  of  1650,  pp.  so,  57. 

V  Ibid.,  p.  64. 

wlbid.,  p.  44- 

•  This  was  not  peculiar  to  Connecti- 
cut. See,  for  instance,  the  law  Arhich, 
on  September  13,  1644,  banished  the  Ana- 
baptists from  the  State  of  Massachusetts. 
("  Historial  Collection  of  State  Papers," 
vol.  i.  p.  53S,)  See  also  the  law  against 
the  Quakers,  passed  on  October  14, 
1656  :  "  Whereas,"  says  the  preamble, 
"  an  accursed  race  of  heretics  called 
Quakers  has  sprung  up."  etc.  The 
clauses  of  the  statute  inflict  a  heavy 
fine  on  all  captains  of  ships  who  should 


import  Quakers  into  the  country.  The 
Quakers  who  maj^  be  found  there  shall 
be  whipped  and  imprisoned  with  hard 
labor.  Those  members  of  the  sect  who 
should  defend  their  opinions  shall  be 
first  fined,  then  imprisoned,  and  finally 
driven  out  of  the  province.—"  Historical 
Collection  of  State  Papers,"  vol.  i.  p. 
630. 

X  By  the  penal  law  of  Massachusetts, 
any  Catholic  priest  who  should  set  foot 
in  the  colony  after  having  been  once 
driven  out  of  it  was  liable  to  capital 
punishment. 

jr  Code  of  1650,  p.   q6. 

s  "  New  England's  Memorial,"  p.  316. 
See  Appendix,  E. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


39 


people,  a  body  of  political  laws  is  to  be  found,  which,  though 
written  two  hundred  years  ago,  is  still  ahead  of  the  liberties  of 
our  age.  The  general  principles  which  are  the  groundwork  of 
modern  constitutions — principles  which  were  imperfectly  known 
in  Europe,  and  not  completely  triumphant  even  in  Great  Britain, 
in  the  seventeenth  century — were  all  recognized  and  determined 
by  the  laws  of  New  England:  the  intervention  of  the  people 
in  public  affairs,  the  free  voting  of  taxes,  the  responsibility  of 
authorities,  personal  liberty,  and  trial  by  jury,  were  all  posi- 
tively established  without  discussion.  From  these  fruitful  prin- 
ciples consequences  have  been  derived  and  applications  have 
been  made  such  as  no  nation  in  Europe  has  yet  ventured  to 
attempt. 

In  Connecticut  the  electoral  body  consisted,  from  its  origin, 
of  the  whole  number  of  citizens ;  and  this  is  readily  to  be  under- 
stood,o  when  we  recollect  that  this  people  enjoyed  an  almost 
perfect  equality  of  fortune,  and  a  still  greater  uniformity  of 
opinions.^  In  Connecticut,  at  this  period,  all  the  executive 
functionaries  were  elected,  including  the  Governor  of  the  State.c 
The  citizens  above  the  age  of  sixteen  were  obliged  to  bear 
arms ;  they  formed  a  national  militia,  which  appointed  its  own 
officers,  and  was  to  hold  itself  at  all  times  in  readiness  to  march 
for  the  defence  of  the  country.^ 

In  the  laws  of  Connecticut,  as  well  as  in  all  those  of  New  Eng- 
land, we  find  the  germ  and  gradual  development  of  that  town- 
ship independence  which  is  the  life  and  mainspring  of  Ameri- 
can liberty  at  the  present  day.  The  political  existence  of  the 
majority  of  the  nations  of  Europe  commenced  in  the  superior 
ranks  of  society,  and  was  gradually  and  imperfectly  communi- 
cated to  the  different  members  of  the  social  body.  In  America, 
on  the  other  hand,  it  may  be  said  that  the  township  was  or- 
ganized before  the  county,  the  county  before  the  State,  the 
State  before  the  Union.  In  New  England  townships  were  com- 
pletely and  definitively  co^-stituted  as  early  as  1650.  The  inde- 
pendence of  the  township  was  the  nucleus  round  which  the  local 
interests,  passions,  rights,  and  duties  collected  and  clung.  It 
gave  scope  to  the  activity  of  a  real  political  life  most  thoroughly 


U 


^ 


i    '/ 


a  Constitution  of  1638,  p.   17. 

b  In  1641  the  General  Assembly  of 
Rhode  Island  unanimously  declared  that 
the  Rovernment  of  the  State  was  a 
democracy,  and  that  the  power  was 
vested  in  the  body  of  free  citizens,  who 


alone  had  the  right  to  make  the  laws 
and  to  watch  their  execution. — Code  of 
1650,  p.  70. 

f  "  Pitkin's   History,"   p.   47. 

d  Constitution  of  163!!,  p.  12. 


i| 


40 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


^^ 


II' 


democratic  and  republican.  The  colonies  still  recognized  the 
supremacy  of  the  mother-country ;  monarchy  was  still  the  law 
of  the  State ;  but  the  republic  was  already  established  in  every 
township.  The  towns  named  their  own  magistrates  of  every 
kind,  rated  themselves,  and  levied  their  own  taxes.^  In  the 
parish  of  New  England  the  law  of  representation  was  not 
adopted,  but  the  affairs  of  the  community  were  discussed,  as  at 
Athens,  in  the  market-place,  by  a  general  assembly  of  the  citi- 
zens. 

In  studying  the  laws  which  were  promulgated  at  this  first 
era  of  the  American  republics,  it  is  impossible  not  to  be  struck 
by  the  remarkable  acquaintance  with  the  science  of  govern- 
ment and  the  advanced  theory  of  legislation  which  they  display. 
The  ideas  there  formed  of  the  duties  of  society  towards  its 
members  are  evidently  much  loftier  and  more  comprehensive 
than  those  of  the  European  legislators  at  that  time:  obliga- 
tions were  there  imposed  which  were  elsewhere  slighted.  In  the 
States  of  New  England,  from  the  first,  the  condition  of  the 
poor  was  provided  for ;  f  strict  measures  were  taken  for  the 
maintenance  of  roads,  and  surveyors  were  appointed  to  attend 
to  them ;  g  registers  were  established  in  every  parish,  in  which 
the  results  of  public  deliberations,  and  the  births,  deaths,  and 
marriages  of  the  citizens  were  entered ;  h  clerks  were  directed  to 
keep  these  registers ; «  officers  were  charged  with  the  adminis- 
tration of  vacant  inheritances,  and  with  the  arbitration  of  liti- 
gated landmarks;  and  many  others  were  created  whose  chief 
functions  were  the  maintenance  of  public  order  in  the  com- 
munity.; liie  law  enters  into  a  thousand  useful  provisions  for 
a  number  of  social  wants  which  are  at  present  very  inadequately 
felt  in  France. 

But  it  is  by  the  attention  it  pays  to  Public  Education  that  the 
original  character  of  American  civilization  is  at  once  placed  in 
the  clearest  light.  "  It  being,"  says  the  law,  "  one  chief  project 
of  Satan  to  keep  men  from  the  knowledge  of  the  Scripture  by 
persuading  from  the  use  of  tongues,  to  the  end  that  learning 
may  not  be  buried  in  the  graves  of  our  forefathers,  in  church 
and  commonwealth,  the  Lord  assisting  our  endeavors.  .  .  ."ft 
Here  follow  clauses  establishing  schools  in  every  township,  and 


e  Code  of  i6so,  p.  80. 

/  Ibid.,  p.  78. 

g  Ibid.,  p.  49. 

h  See  "Hutchinson's  History,"  vol.  i. 


t'Cbde  of  1650,  p.  86. 
i  Ibid.,  p.  40. 
k  Ibid.,  p.  90. 


I 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


41 


obliging  the  inhabitants,  under  pain  of  heavy  fines,  to  support 
them.  Schools  of  a  superior  kind  were  founded  in  the  same 
manner  in  the  more  populous  districts.  The  municipal  authori- 
ties V  ere  bound  to  enforce  the  sending  of  children  to  school  by 
their  parents ;  they  were  empowered  to  inflict  fines  upon  all  who 
refused  compliance;  and  in  case  of  continued  resistance  so- 
ciety assumed  the  place  of  the  parent,  took  possession  of  the 
child,  and  deprived  the  father  of  those  natural  rights  which 
he  used  to  so  bad  a  purpose.  The  reader  will  undoubtedly  have 
remarked  the  preamble  of  these  enactments :  in  America  religion 
is  the  road  to  knowledge,  and  the  obsei vance  of  the  divine  laws 
leads  man  to  civil  freedom. 

If,  after  having  cast  a  rapid  glance  over  the  state  of  Ameri- 
can society  in  1650,  we  turn  to  the  condition  of  Europe,  and 
more  especially  to  that  of  the  Continent,  at  the  same  period,  we 
cannot  fail  to  be  struck  with  astonishment.  On  the  Continent 
of  Europe,  at  the  beginning  of  the  seventeenth  century,  abso- 
lute monarchy  had  everywhere  triumphed  over  the  ruins  of  the 
oligarchical  and  feudal  liberties  of  the  Middle  Ages.  Never 
were  the  notions  of  right  more  completely  confounded  than  in 
the  midst  of  the  splendor  and  literature  of  Europe ;  never  was 
the'-e  less  political  activity  among  the  people ;  never  were  the 
principles  of  true  freedom  less  widely  circulated ;  and  at  that 
very  time  those  principles,  which  were  scorned  or  unknown  by 
the  nations  of  Europe,  were  proclaimed  in  the  deserts  of  the 
New  World,  and  were  accepted  as  the  future  creed  of  a  great 
people.  The  boldest  theories  of  the  human  reason  were  put 
into  practice  by  a  community  so  humble  that  not  a  statesman 
condescended  to  attend  to  it ;  and  a  legislation  without  a  prec- 
edent was  produced  offhand  by  the  imagination  of  the  citizens. 
In  the  bosom  of  this  obscure  democracy,  which  had  as  yet 
brought  forth  neither  generals,  nor  philosophers,  nor  authors, 
a  man  might  stand  up  in  the  face  of  a  free  people  and  pronounce 
the  following  fine  definition  of  liberty.^ 

"  Nor  would  I  have  you  to  mistake  in  the  point  of  your  own 
liberty.  There  is  a  liberty  of  a  corrupt  nature  which  is  effected 
both  by  men  and  beasts  to  do  what  they  list,  and  this  liberty  is 
inconsistent  with  authority,  impatient  of  all  restraint ;  by  this 


'       -Vt 


})'M 


I  Mather's  "  Magnalia  Christi  Ameri- 
cana," vol.  ii.  p.  13.  This  speech  was 
made  by  Winthrop  ;  he  was  accused  of 
havinK  committed  arbitrary  actions  dur- 
ing   his    magistracy,  but    after    having 


made  the  speech  of  which  the  above  is 
a  fraRment,  he  was  acquitted  by  ac- 
clamation, and  from  that  time  forwards 
he  was  always  re-elected  governor  of  the 
State.    See  Marshal,  vol.  i.  p.  i66. 


4a 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


ft-. 


liberty  '  snvius  omnes  deteriores ':  'tis  the  grand  enemy  of  truth 
and  peace,  and  all  the  ordinances  of  God  are  bent  against  it. 
But  there  is  a  civil,  a  moral,  a  federal  liberty  which  is  the  proper 
end  and  object  of  authority ;  it  is  a  liberty  for  that  only  which 
is  just  and  good:  for  this  liberty  you  are  to  stand  with  the 
hazard  of  your  very  lives  and  whatsoever  crosses  it  is  not  au- 
thority, but  a  distemper  thereof.  This  liberty  is  maintained 
in  a  way  of  subjection  to  authority ;  and  the  authority  set  over 
you  will,  in  all  administrations  for  your  good,  be  quietly  sub- 
mitted unto  by  all  but  such  as  have  a  disposition  to  shake  off 
the  yoke  and  lose  their  true  liberty,  by  their  murmuring  at  the 
honor  and  power  of  authority." 

The  remarks  I  have  made  will  suffice  to  display  the  charac- 
ter of  Anglo-American  civilization  in  its  true  light.  It  is  the 
result  (and  this  should  be  constantly  present  to  the  mind  of 
two  distinct  elements,  which  in  other  places  have  been  in  fre- 
quent hostility,  but  which  in  America  have  been  admirably  in- 
corporated and  combined  with  one  another.  I  allude  to  the 
spirit  of  Religion  and  the  spirit  of  Liberty. 

The  settlers  of  New  England  were  at  the  same  time  ardent 
sectarians  and  daring  innovators.  Narrow  as  the  limits  of  some 
of  their  religious  opinions  were,  they  were  entirely  free  from 
political  prejudices.  Hence  a-ose  two  tendencies,  distinct  but 
not  opposite,  which  are  constantly  discernible  in  the  manners 
as  well  as  in  the  laws  of  the  country. 

It  might  be  imagined  that  men  who  sacrificed  their  friends, 
their  family,  and  their  native  land  to  a  religious  conviction  were 
absorbed  in  the  pursuit  of  the  intellectual  advantages  which 
they  purchased  at  so  dear  a  rate.  The  energy,  however,  with 
which  they  strove  for  the  acquirement  of  wealth,  moral  enjoy- 
ment, and  the  comforts  as  well  as  liberties  of  the  world,  is 
scarcely  inferior  to  that  with  which  they  devoted  themselves  to 
Heaven. 

Political  principles  and  all  human  laws  and  institutions  were 
moulded  and  altered  at  their  pleasure ;  the  barriers  of  the  so- 
ciety in  which  they  were  born  were  broken  down  before  them ; 
the  old  principles  which  had  governed  the  world  for  ages  were 
no  more ;  a  path  without  a  turn  and  a  field  without  an  horizon 
were  opened  to  the  exploring  and  ardent  curiosity  of  man :  but 
at  the  limits  of  the  political  world  he  checks  his  researches,  he 
discreetly  lays  aside  the  use  of  his  most  formidable  faculties,  he 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


43 


no  longer  consents  to  doubt  or  to  innovate,  but  carefully  ab- 
staining from  raising  the  curtain  of  the  sanctuary,  he  yields 
with  submissive  respect  to  truths  which  he  will  not  discuss. 
Thus,  in  the  moral  world  everything  is  classed,  adapted,  decided, 
and  foreseen ;  in  the  political  world  everything  is  agitated,  un- 
certain, and  disputed :  in  the  one  is  a  passive,  though  a  volun- 
tary, obedience ;  in  the  other  an  independence  scornful  of  ex- 
perience and  jealous  of  authority. 

These  two  tendencies,  apparently  so  discrepant,  are  far  from 
conflicting ;  they  advance  together,  and  mutually  support  each 
other.  Religion  perceives  that  civil  liberty  affords  a  noble  ex- 
ercise to  the  faculties  of  man,  and  that  ihe  political  world  is  a 
field  prepared  by  the  Creator  for  the  efforts  of  the  intelligence. 
Contented  with  the  freedom  and  the  power  which  it  enjoys  in 
its  own  sphere,  and  with  the  place  which  it  occupies,  the  em- 
pire of  religion  is  never  more  surely  established  than  Avhen  it 
reigns  in  the  hearts  of  men  unsupported  by  aught  beside  its 
native  strength.  Religion  is  no  less  the  companion  of  liberty 
in  all  its  battles  and  its  triumphs ;  the  cradle  of  its  infancy,  and 
the  divine  source  of  its  claims.  The  safeguard  of  morality  is  re- 
ligion, and  morality  is  the  best  security  of  law  and  the  surest 
pledge  of  freedom.*** 


W 


Reasons  of  Certain  Anomalies  which  the  Laws  and 
Customs  of  the  Anglo-Americans  present 

Remains  of  aristocratic  institutions  in  the  midst  of  a  complete  de- 
mocracy— Why? — Distinction  carefully  to  be  drawn  between  what 
is  of  Puritanical  and  what  is  of  English  origin. 

The  reader  is  cautioned  not  to  draw  too  general  or  too  abso- 
lute an  inference  from  what  has  been  said.  The  social  condi- 
tion, the  religion,  and  the  manners  of  the  first  emigrants  un- 
doubtedly exercised  an  immense  influence  on  the  destiny  of 
their  new  country.  Nevertheless  they  were  not  in  a  situation 
to  found  a  state  of  things  solely  dependent  on  themselves :  no 
man  can  entirely  shake  oflf  the  influence  of  the  past,  and  the 
settlers,  intentionally  or  involuntarily,  mingled  habits  and  no- 
tions derived  from  their  education  and  from  the  traditions  of 
their  country  with  those  habits  and  notions  which  were  exclu- 
sively their  own.    To  form  a  judgment  on  the  Anglo- Ameri- 

m  See  Appendix,  F. 


44 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


h 


I 


cans  of  the  present  day  it  is  therefore  necessary  to  distinguish 
what  is  of  Puritanical  and  what  is  of  English  origin. 

Laws  and  customs  are  frequently  to  be  met  with  in  the 
United  States  which  contrast  strongly  with  all  that  surrounds 
them.  These  laws  seem  to  be  drawn  up  in  a  spirit  contrary 
to  the  prevailing  tenor  of  the  American  legislation ;  and  these 
customs  are  no  less  opposed  to  the  tone  of  society.  If  the  Eng- 
lish colonies  had  been  founded  in  an  age  of  darkness,  or  if  their 
origin  was  already  lost  in  the  lapse  of  years,  the  problem  would 
be  insoluble. 

I  shall  quote  a  single  example  to  illustrate  what  I  advance. 
The  civil  and  criminal  procedure  of  the  Americans  has  only 
two  means  of  action — committal  and  bail.  The  first  measure 
taken  by  the  magistrate  is  to  exact  security  from  the  defendant, 
or,  in  case  of  refusal,  to  incarcerate  him:  the  ground  of  the 
accusation  and  the  importance  of  the  charges  against  him  are 
then  discussed.  It  is  evident  that  a  legislation  of  this  kind  is 
hostile  to  the  poor  man,  and  favorable  only  to  the  rich.  The 
poor  man  has  not  always  a  security  to  produce,  even  in  a  civil 
cause ;  and  if  he  is  obliged  to  wait  for  justice  in  prison,  he  is 
speedily  reduced  to  distress.  The  wealthy  individual,  on  the 
contrary,  always  escapes  imprisonment  in  civil  causes;  nay, 
more,  he  may  readily  elude  the  punishment  which  awaits  him 
for  a  delinquency  by  breaking  his  bail.  So  that  all  the  penalties 
of  the  law  are,  for  him,  reducible  to  fines."  Nothing  can  be 
more  aristocratic  than  this  system  of  legislation.  Yet  in 
America  it  is  the  poor  who  make  the  la  ,  and  they  usually  re- 
serve the  greatest  social  advantages  to  themselves.  The  ex- 
planation of  the  phenomenon  is  to  be  found  in  England ;  the 
laws  of  which  I  speak  are  English,©  and  the  Americans  have  re- 
tained them,  however  repugnant  they  may  be  to  the  tenor  of 
their  legislation  and  the  mass  of  their  ideas.  Next  to  its  habits, 
the  thing  which  a  nation  is  least  apt  to  change  is  its  civil  legis- 
lation. Civil  laws  are  only  familiarly  known  to  legal  men, 
whose  direct  interest  it  is  to  maintain  them  as  they  are,  whether 
good  or  bad,  simply  because  they  themselves  are  conversant 
with  them.  The  body  of  the  nation  is  scarcely  acquainted  with 
them ;  it  merely  perceives  their  action  in  particular  cases ;  but 


M  Crimes  no  doubt  exist  for  which 
bail  is  inadmissible,  but  they  are  few 
in  number. 


0  See  Blackstone  ;  and  Delolme,  book 
I  chap.  X. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


45 


it  has  some  difficulty  in  seizing  their  tendency,  and  obeys  them 
without  premeditation.  I  have  quoted  one  instance  where  it 
would  have  been  easy  to  adduce  a  great  number  of  others.  The 
surface  of  American  society  is,  if  I  may  use  the  expression, 
covered  with  a  layer  of  democracy,  from  beneath  which  the  old 
aristocratic  colors  sometimes  peep. 


> 


CHAPTER   III 


SOCIAL  CONDITION  OF  THE  ANGLO-AMERICANS 


ASOCIAL  condition  is  commonly  the  result  of  circum- 
stances, sometimes  of  laws,  oftener  still  of  these  two 
causes  united ;  but  wherever  it  exists,  it  may  justly  be 
considered  as  the  source  of  almost  all  the  laws,  the  usages,  and 
the  ideas  which  regulate  the  conduct  of  nations ;  whatever  it 
does  not  produce  it  modifies.  It  is  therefore  necessary,  if  we 
would  become  acquainted  with  the  legislation  and  the  manners 
of  a  nation,  to  begin  by  the  study  of  its  social  condition. 


I* ' 


The  Striking  Characteristic  of  the  Social  Condition 
OF  THE  Anglo-Americans  in  its  Essential  Democracy 

The  first  emigrants  of  New  England — Their  equality — Aristocratic 
laws  introduced  in  the  South — Period  of  the  Revolution — Change 
in  the  law  of  descent — Effects  produced  by  this  change — Democracy 
carried  to  its  utmost  limits  in  the  new  States  of  the  West — Equality 
of  education. 

Many  important  observations  suggest  themselves  upon  the 
social  condition  of  the  Anglo-Americans,  but  there  is  one  which 
takes  precedence  of  all  the  rest.  The  social  condition  of  the 
Americans  is  eminently  democratic ;  this  was  its  character  at 
the  foundation  of  the  Colonies,  and  is  still  more  strongly  marked 
at  the  present  day.  I  have  stated  in  the  preceding  chapter  that 
great  equality  existed  among  the  emigrants  who  settled  on  the 
shores  of  New  England.  The  germ  of  aristocracy  was  never 
planted  in  that  part  of  the  Union.  The  only  influence  which 
obtained  there  was  that  of  intellect ;  the  people  were  used  to 
reverence  certain  names  as  the  emblems  of  knowledge  and 
virtue.  Some  of  their  fellow-citizens  acquired  a  power  over 
the  rest  which  might  truly  have  been  called  aristocratic,  if  it 
had  been  capable  of  transmission  from  father  to  son. 

This  was  the  state  of  things  to  the  east  of  the  Hudson :  to  the 

46 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


47 


south-west  of  that  river,  and  in  the  direction  of  the  Floridas, 
the  case  was  different.  In  most  of  the  States  situated  to  the 
south-west  of  the  Hudson  some  great  English  proprietors  had 
settled,  who  had  imported  with  them  aristocratic  principles  ind 
the  English  law  of  descent.  I  have  explained  the  reasons  why 
it  was  impossible  ever  to  establish  a  powerful  aristocracy  in 
America ;  these  reasons  existed  with  less  force  to  the  south-west 
of  the  Hudson.  In  the  South,  one  man,  aided  by  slaves,  could 
cultivate  a  great  extent  of  country :  it  was  therefore  common 
to  see  rich  landed  proprietors.  But  their  influence  was  not 
altogether  aristocratic  as  that  term  is  understood  in  Europe, 
since  they  possessed  no  privileges ;  and  the  cultivation  of  their 
estates  being  carried  on  by  slaves,  they  had  no  tenants  depend- 
ing on  them,  and  consequently  no  patronage.  Still,  the  great 
proprietors  south  of  the  Hudson  constituted  a  superior  class, 
having  ideas  and  tastes  of  ils  own,  and  forming  the  centre  of 
political  action.  This  kind  of  aristocracy  sympathized  with  the 
body  of  the  people,  whose  passions  and  interests  it  easily  em- 
braced ;  but  it  was  too  weak  and  too  short-lived  to  excite  either 
love  or  hatred  for  itself.  This  was  the  class  which  headed  the 
insurrection  in  the  South,  and  furnished  the  best  leaders  of  the 
American  revolution. 

At  the  period  of  which  we  are  now  speaking  society  was 
shaken  to  its  centre :  the  people,  in  whose  name  the  struggle 
had  taken  place,  conceived  the  desire  of  exercising  the  author- 
ity which  it  had  acquired ;  its  democratic  tendencies  were 
awakened ;  and  having  thrown  off  the  yoke  of  the  mother- 
country,  it  aspired  to  independence  of  every  kind.  The  influ- 
ence of  individuals  gradually  ceased  to  be  felt,  and  custom  and 
law  united  together  to  produce  the  same  result. 

But  the  law  of  descent  was  the  last  step  to  equality.  I  am 
surprised  that  ancient  and  modern  jurists  have  not  attributed 
to  this  law  a  greater  influence  on  human  aflFairs.o  It  is  true 
that  these  laws  belong  to  civil  affairs ;  but  they  ought  neverthe- 
less to  be  placed  at  the  head  of  all  political  institutions ;  for, 
whilst  political  laws  are  only  the  symbol  of  a  nation's  condi- 
tion, they  exercise  an  incredible  influence  upon  its  social  state. 


a  I  understand  by  the  law  of  descent 
all  those  laws  whose  principal  object  is 
to  regulate  the  distribution  of  property 
after  the  death  of  its  owner.  The  law  of 
entail  is  of  this  number  ;  it  certainly 
prevents  the  owner  from  disposing  of 
his  possessions  before  his  death  ;  but 


this  is  solely  with  the  view  of  preserving 
them  entire  for  the  heir.  The  principal 
object,  therefore,  of  the  law  of  entail 
is  to  regulate  the  descent  of  property 
after  the  death  of  its  owner  :  its  other 
provisions  are  merely  means  to  this 
end. 


M 


48 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


They  have,  moreover,  a  sure  and  uniform  manner  of  operating 
upon  society,  affecting,  as  it  were,  generations  yet  unborn. 

Through  their  means  man  acquires  a  kind  of  preternatural 
power  over  the  future  lot  of  his  fellow-creatures.  When  the 
legislator  has  regulated  the  law  of  inheritance,  he  may  rest  from 
his  labor.  The  machine  once  put  in  motion  will  go  on  for  ages, 
and  advance,  as  if  self-guided,  towards  a  given  point.  When 
framed  in  a  particular  manner,  this  law  unites,  draws  together, 
and  vests  property  and  power  in  a  few  hands :  its  tendency  is 
clearly  aristocratic.  On  opposite  principles  its  action  is  still 
more  rapid ;  it  divides,  distributes,  and  disperses  both  property 
and  power.  Alarmed  by  the  rapidity  of  its  progress,  those  who 
despair  of  arresting  its  motion  endeavor  to  obstruct  it  by  diffi- 
culties and  impediments;  they  vainly  seek  to  counteract  its 
effect  by  contrary  efforts ;  but  it  gradually  reduces  or  destroys 
every  obstacle,  until  by  its  incessant  activity  the  bulwarks  of  the 
influence  of  wealth  are  ground  down  to  the  fine  and  shifting 
sand  which  is  the  basis  of  democracy.  When  the  law  of  inheri- 
tance permits,  still  more  when  it  decrees,  the  equal  division 
of  a  father's  property  amongst  all  his  children,  its  effects  are  of 
two  kinds :  it  is  important  to  distinguish  them  from  each  other, 
although  they  tend  to  the  same  end. 

In  virtue  of  the  law  of  partible  inheritance,  the  death  of  every 
proprietor  brings  about  a  kind  of  revolution  in  property ;  not 
only  do  his  possessions  change  hands,  but  their  very  nature  is 
altered,  since  they  are  parcelled  into  shares,  which  become  small- 
er and  smaller  at  each  division.  This  is  the  direct  and,  as  it 
were,  the  physical  effect  of  the  law.  It  follows,  then,  that  in 
countries  where  equality  of  inheritance  is  ertablished  by  law, 
property,  and  especially  landed  property,  must  have  a  tendency 
to  perpetual  diminution.  The  effects,  however,  of  such  legis- 
lation would  only  be  perceptible  after  a  lapse  of  time,  if  the 
law  was  abandoned  to  its  own  working;  for  supposing  the 
family  to  consist  of  two  children  (and  in  a  country  peopled  as 
France  is  the  average  number  is  not  above  three),  these  children, 
sharing  amongst  them  the  fortune  of  both  parents,  would  not 
be  poorer  than  their  father  or  mother. 

But  the  law  of  equal  division  exercises  its  influence  not 
merely  upon  the  property  itself,  but  it  affects  the  minds  of  the 
heirs,  and  brings  their  passions  into  play.  These  indirect  con- 
sequences tend  powerfully  to  the  destruction  of  large  fortunes, 


DEMOCRACY   IN   AMERICA 


49 


and  especially  of  large  domains.  Among  nations  whose  law  of 
descent  is  founded  upon  the  right  of  primogeniture  landed  es- 
tates often  pass  from  generation  to  generation  without  undergo- 
ing division,  the  consequence  of  which  is  that  family  feeling  is  to 
a  certain  degree  incorporated  with  the  estate.  The  family  repre- 
sents the  estate,  the  estate  the  family ;  whose  name,  together 
with  its  origin,  its  glory,  its  power,  and  its  virtues,  is  thus  per- 
petuated in  an  imperishable  memorial  of  the  past  and  a  sure 
pledge  of  the  future. 

When  the  equal  partition  of  property  is  established  by  law, 
the  intimate  connection  is  destroyed  between  family  feeling 
and  the  preservation  of  the  paternal  estate  ;  the  property  ceases 
to  represent  the  family ;  for  as  it  must  inevitably  be  divided 
after  one  or  two  generations,  it  has  evidently  a  constant  ten- 
dency to  diminish,  and  must  in  the  end  be  completely  dispersed. 
The  sons  of  the  great  landed  proprietor,  if  they  are  few  in  num- 
ber, or  if  fortune  befriends  them,  may  indeed  entertain  the  hope 
of  being  as  wealthy  as  their  father,  but  not  that  of  possessing 
the  same  property  as  he  did ;  the  riches  must  necessarily  be  com- 
posed of  elements  different  from  his. 

Now,  from  the  moment  that  you  divest  the  landowner  of 
that  interest  in  the  preservation  of  his  estate  which  he  derives 
from  association,  from  tradition,  and  from  family  pride,  you 
may  be  certain  that  sooner  or  later  he  will  dispose  of  it ;  for 
there  is  a  strong  pecuniary  interest  in  favor  of  selling,  as  float- 
ing capital  produces  higher  interest  than  real  property,  and  is 
more  readily  available  to  gratify  the  passions  of  the  moment. 

Great  landed  estates  which  have  once  been  divided  never 
come  together  again ;  for  the  small  proprietor  draws  from  his 
land  a  better  revenue,  in  proportion,  than  the  large  owner  does 
from  his,  and  of  course  he  sells  it  at  a  higher  rate.&  The  calcu- 
lations of  gain,  therefore,  which  decide  the  rich  man  to  sell  his 
domain  will  still  more  powerfully  influence  him  against  buying 
small  estates  to  unite  them  i:  to  a  large  one. 

What  is  called  family  pride  is  often  founded  upon  an  illusion 
of  self-love.  A  man  wishes  to  perpetuate  and  immortalize 
himself,  as  it  were,  in  his  great-grandchildren.  Where  the 
esprit  de  famille  ceases  to  act  individual  selfishness  comes  into 
play.    When  the  idea  of  family  becomes  vague,  indeterminate, 


6  I  do  not  mean  to  say  that  the  small 
proprietor  cnltivates  his  land  better,  but 
he   cultivates   it   with   more   ardor   and 

Vol.  I.— 4 


care  j  so  that  he  makes  up  by  his  labor 
for  his  want  of  skill. 


so 


DK  TOCQUKVILLE 


aiul  uncertain,  a  man  thinks  of  his  present  convnicncc;  he 
provides  for  the  establishment  of  his  succ»'«'<i;  ii  ^jcntration, 
and  no  more.  Either  a  man  gives  up  the  ideu  ■  ccri  •.  tu'iting 
his  family,  or  at  any  rate  he  seeks  to  accompliiii  it  by  other 
means  than  that  of  a  landed  estate.  Thus  not  only  does  tli ;  law 
of  partible  inheritance  render  it  difficult  for  families  to  preserve 
their  ancestral  domains  entire,  but  it  deprives  them  of  the  in- 
clination to  attempt  it,  and  compels  them  in  some  measure  tn 
co-operate  with  the  law  in  their  own  extinction. 

The  law  of  equal  distribution  proceeds  by  two  methods :  by 
acting  upon  things,  it  acts  upon  persons ;  by  influencing  per- 
sons, it  aflfects  things.  By  these  means  the  law  succeeds  in 
striking  at  the  root  of  landed  property,  and  dispersing  rapidly 
both  families  and  fortunes.^ 

Most  certainly  it  is  not  for  us  Frenchmen  of  the  nineteenth 
century,  who  daily  witness  the  political  and  social  changes 
which  the  law  of  partition  is  bringing  to  pass,  to  question  its  in- 
fluence. It  is  perpetually  conspicuous  in  our  country,  over- 
throwing the  walls  of  our  dwellings  and  removing  the  land- 
marks of  our  fields.  But  although  it  has  produced  great 
effects  in  France,  much  still  remains  for  it  to  do.  Our  recollec- 
tions, opinions,  and  habits  present  powerful  obstacles  to  its 
progress. 

In  the  United  States  it  has  nearly  completed  its  work  of  de- 
struction, and  there  we  can  best  study  its  results.  The  Eng- 
lish laws  concerning  the  transmission  of  property  were  abol- 
ished in  almost  all  the  States  at  the  time  of  the  Revolution.  The 
law  of  entail  was  so  modified  as  not  to  interrupt  the  free  cir- 
culation of  property.^  The  first  generation  having  passed 
away,  estates  began  to  be  parcelled  out,  and  the  change  became 
more  and  more  rapid  with  the  progress  of  time.  At  this  mo- 
ment, after  a  lapse  of  a  little  more  than  sixty  years,  the  aspect 
of  society  is  totally  altered ;   the  families  of  the  great  landed 


c  Land  being  the  most  stable  kind 
of  property,  we  find,  from  time  to  time, 
rich  individuals  who  are  disposed  to 
make  ereat  sacrifices  in  order  to  obtain 
it,  and  wno  willinfjrly  forfeit  a  consid- 
erable part  of  their  income  to  make  sure 
of  the  rest,  llut  these  are  accidental 
cases.  The  preference  for  landed  prop- 
erty is  no  longer  found  habitually  in  any 
class  but  among  the  poor.  The  smnll 
landowner,  who  has  less  information, 
less  imagination,  and  fewer  p.issions 
than  the  great  one,  is  generally  oc- 
cupied with  the  desire  of  increasing  his 


estate  :  and  it  often  happens  that  by  in- 
heritance, by  marriajrc,  or  by  the  chances 
of  trade,  he  is  gradually  furnished  with 
the  means.  Thus,  to  balance  the  ten- 
dency which  leads  men  to  divide  their 
estates,  there  exists  another,  which  in- 
cites them  to  add  to  them.  This  ten- 
dency, which  is  sufficient  to  prevent 
estates  from  being  divided  ad  infinilum, 
is  pot  strong  enough  to  create  great  ter- 
ritorial possessions,  certainly  not  to 
keep  them  up  in  the  same  family. 
d  See  Appendix,  G. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMKRICA 


5» 


proprietors  are  almost  all  comniinplcd  with  the  general  mass. 
In  the  State  of  New  York,  which  formerly  contained  many  of 
these,  there  arc  but  two  who  still  keep  their  heads  above  the 
stream,  and  they  must  shortly  disappear.  The  sons  of  these 
opulent  citizens  arc  become  merchants,  lawyers,  or  physicians. 
Most  of  them  have  lapsed  into  obscurity.  The  last  trace  of 
hereditary  ranks  and  distinctions  is  destroyed — the  law  of  par- 
tition has  reduced  all  to  one  level. 

I  do  not  mean  that  there  is  any  deficiency  of  wealthy  individ- 
uals in  the  United  States ;  I  know  of  no  country,  indeed,  where 
the  love  of  money  has  taken  stronger  hold  on  the  affections  of 
men,  and  where  the  profounder  contempt  is  expressed  for  the 
theory  of  the  permanent  equality  of  property.  But  wealth  cir- 
culates with  inconceivable  rapidity,  and  experience  shows  that 
it  is  rare  to  find  two  succeeding  generations  in  the  full  enjoy- 
ment of  it. 

This  picture,  which  may  perhaps  be  thought  to  be  over- 
charged, still  gives  a  very  imperfect  idea  of  what  is  taking  place 
in  the  new  States  of  the  West  and  South-west.  At  the  end  of 
the  last  century  a  few  bold  adventurers  began  to  penetrate  into 
the  valleys  of  the  Mississippi,  and  the  mass  of  the  population 
very  soon  began  to  move  in  that  direction :  communities  un- 
heard of  till  then  were  seen  to  emerge  from  the  wilds :  States 
whose  names  were  not  in  existence  a  few  years  before  claimed 
their  place  in  the  American  Union  ;  and  in  the  Western  settle- 
ments we  may  behold  democracy  arrived  at  its  utmost  extreme. 
In  these  States,  founded  off-hand,  and,  as  it  were,  by  chance, 
the  inhabitants  are  but  of  yesterday.  Scarcely  known  to  one 
another,  the  nearest  neighbors  are  ignorant  of  each  other's  his- 
tory. In  this  part  of  the  American  continent,  therefore,  the 
population  has  not  experienced  the  influence  of  great  names 
and  great  wealth,  nor  even  that  of  the  natural  aristocracy  of 
knowledge  and  virtue.  None  are  there  to  wield  that  respecta- 
ble power  which  men  willingly  grant  to  the  remembrance  of  a 
life  spent  in  doing  good  before  their  eyes.  The  new  States  of 
the  West  are  already  inhabited,  but  society  has  no  existence 
among  them.^ 

It  is  not  only  the  fortunes  of  men  which  are  equal  in  Amer- 


e  This  may  have  been  true  in  1832, 
but  is  not  so  in  1874,  when  great  cities 
like  Chicago  and  San  Francisco  have 
sprung  up  in  the  Western  States.    But 


as  yet  the  Western  States  exert  no 
powerful  influence  on  American  society. 
— Tratislafar's  Note. 


s« 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


li 


If 


ica;  even  their  requirements  partake  in  some  degree  of  the 
same  uniformity.  I  do  not  beHeve  that  there  is  a  country  in 
the  world  where,  in  proportion  to  the  population,  there  are  so 
few  uninstructed  and  at  the  same  time  so  few  learned  individu- 
als. Primary  instruction  is  within  the  reach  of  everybody; 
superior  instruction  is  scarcely  to  be  obtained  by  any.  This 
is  not  surprising ;  it  is  in  fact  the  necessary  consequence  of  what 
we  have  advanced  above.  Almost  all  the  Americans  are  in  easy 
circumstances,  and  can  therefore  obtain  the  first  elements  of 
human  knowledge. 

In  America  there  are  comparatively  few  who  are  rich  enough 
to  live  without  a  profession.  Every  profession  requires  an  ap- 
prenticeship, which  limits  the  time  of  instruction  to  the  early 
years  of  life.  At  fifteen  they  enter  upon  their  calling,  and  thus 
their  education  ends  at  the  age  when  ours  begins.  Whatever 
is  done  afterwards  is  with  a  view  to  some  special  and  lucrative 
object ;  a  science  is  taken  up  as  a  matter  of  business,  and  the 
only  branch  of  it  which  is  attended  to  is  such  as  admits  of  an 
immediate  practical  application.  In  America  most  of  the  rich 
men  were  formerly  poor ;  most  of  those  who  now  enjoy  leisure 
were  absorbed  in  business  during  their  youth ;  the  consequence 
of  which  is,  that  when  they  might  have  had  a  taste  for  study 
they  had  no  time  for  it,  and  when  time  is  at  their  disposal  they 
have  no  longer  the  inclination. 

There  is  no  class,  then,  in  America,  in  which  the  taste  for 
intellectual  pleasures  is  transmitted  with  hereditary  fortune 
and  leisure,  and  by  which  the  labors  of  the  intellect  are  held 
in  honor.  Accordingly  there  is  an  equal  want  of  the  desire  and 
the  power  of  application  to  these  objects. 

A  middle  standard  is  fixed  in  America  for  human  knowledge. 
All  approach  as  near  to  it  as  they  can ;  some  as  they  rise,  others 
as  they  descend.  Of  course,  an  immense  multitude  of  persons 
are  to  be  found  who  entertain  the  same  number  of  ideas  on 
religion,  history,  science,  political  economy,  legislation,  and  gov- 
ernment. The  gifts  of  intellect  proceed  directly  from  God,  and 
man  cannot  prevent  their  unequal  distribution.  But  in  conse- 
quence of  the  state  of  things  which  we  have  here  represented  it 
happens  that,  although  the  capacities  of  men  are  widely  diflfer- 
ent,  as  the  Creator  has  doubtless  intended  they  should  be,  they 
are  submitted  to  the  same  method  of  treatment. 

In  America  the  aristocratic  element  has  always  been  feeble 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


53 


from  its  birth ;  and  if  at  the  present  day  it  is  not  actually  de- 
stroyed, it  is  at  any  rate  so  completely  disabled  that  we  can 
scarcely  assign  to  it  any  degree  of  influence  in  the  course  of  af- 
fairs. The  democratic  principle,  on  the  contrary,  has  gained 
so  much  strength  by  time,  by  events,  and  by  legislation,  as  to 
have  become  not  only  predominant  but  all-powerful.  There  is 
no  family  or  corporate  authority,  and  it  is  rare  to  find  even  the 
influence  of  individual  character  enjoy  any  durability. 

America,  then,  exhibits  in  her  social  state  a  most  extraordi- 
nary phenomenon.  Men  are  there  seen  on  a  greater  equality  in 
point  of  fortune  and  intellect,  or,  in  other  words,  more  equal 
in  their  strength,  than  in  any  other  country  of  the  world,  or  in 
any  age  of  which  history  has  preserved  the  remembrance. 


• 
.1 


Political  Consequences  of  the  Social  Condition  of  the 

Anglo-Americans 

The  political  consequences  of  such  a  social  condition  as  this 
are  easily  deducible.  It  is  impossible  to  believe  that  equality  will 
not  eventually  find  its  way  into  the  political  world  as  it  does 
everywhere  else.  To  conceive  of  men  remaining  forever  un- 
equal upon  one  single  point,  yet  equal  on  all  others,  is  impos- 
sible ;  they  must  come  in  the  end  to  be  equal  upon  all.  Now  I 
know  of  only  two  methods  of  establishing  equality  in  the  polit- 
ical world ;  every  citizen  must  be  put  in  possession  of  his  rights, 
or  rights  must  be  granted  to  no  one.  For  nations  which  are  ar- 
rived at  the  same  stage  of  social  existence  as  the  Anglo-Ameri- 
cans, it  is  therefore  very  difficult  to  discover  a  medium  between 
the  sovereignty  of  all  and  the  absolute  power  of  one  man :  and 
it  would  be  vain  to  deny  that  the  social  condition  which  I  have 
been  describing  is  equally  liable  to  each  of  these  consequences. 

There  is,  in  fact,  a  manly  and  lawful  passion  for  equality 
which  excites  men  to  wish  all  to  be  powerful  and  honored.  This 
passion  tends  to  elevate  the  humble  to  the  rank  of  the  great ;  but 
there  exists  also  in  the  human  heart  a  depraved  taste  for  equal- 
ity, which  impels  the  weak  to  attempt  to  lower  the  powerful  to 
their  own  level,  and  reduces  men  to  prefer  equality  in  slavery  to 
inequality  with  freedom.  Not  that  those  nations  whose  social 
condition  is  democratic  naturally  despise  liberty ;  on  the  con- 
trary, they  have  an  instinctive  love  of  it.  But  liberty  is  not  the 
chief  and  constant  object  of  their  desires;  equality  is  their  idol: 


?i^: 


N 


54 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


they  make  rapid  and  sudden  efforts  to  obtain  liberty,  and  if  they 
miss  their  aim  resign  themselves  to  their  disappointment ;  but 
nothing  can  satisfy  them  except  equahty,  and  rather  than  lose  it 
they  resolve  to  perish. 

On  the  other  hand,  in  a  State  where  the  citizens  are  nearly 
on  an  equality,  it  becomes  difficult  for  them  to  preserve  their 
independence  against  the  aggressions  of  power.  No  one  among 
them  being  strong  enough  to  engage  in  the  struggle  with  ad- 
vantage, nothing  but  a  general  combination  can  protect  their 
liberty.    And  such  a  union  is  not  always  to  be  found. 

From  the  same  social  position,  then,  nations  may  derive  one 
or  the  other  of  two  great  political  results;  these  results  are 
extremely  different  from  each  other,  but  they  may  both  proceed 
from  the  same  cause. 

The  Anglo-Americans  are  the  first  nations  who,  having  been 
exposed  to  this  formidable  alternative,  have  been  happy  enough 
to  escape  the  dominion  of  absolute  power.  They  have  been  al- 
lowed by  their  circumstances,  their  origin,  their  intelligence,  and 
especially  by  their  moral  feeling,  to  establish  and  maintain  the 
sovereignty  of  the  people. 


ii  n 


1 


3M  ;.T'{j:j  j^    ji?,^ 


f-  I .)    '\j    ^j  j  !."<"A,G    ^  >K  !H:i 


,'A'^'»-!?; 


•^i  ji." 


CHOICE   EXAMPLES   OF   CLASSIC   SCULPTURE. 


TE IRES/ AS  AXn   ODVSSEL'S. 

Photou.f,,av,>,i  iron',  the  o,,„nal  nurhU  r.l,,f,„  tkL.uvrr  at  Parn 


',-^ 


,  'J 

ir.  f 

h 


:r 


!■  I 


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I'ii 

r  )' 

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1  M 

1  I'i 

ffl 


?  /; 


V 


I 


CHAPTER    IV 

THE  PRINCIPLE  OF  THE  SOVEREIGNTY  OF  THE  PEOPLE 

IN  AMERICA 

It  predominates  over  the  whole  of  society  in  America — Application 
made  of  this  principle  by  the  Americans  even  before  their  Revolu- 
tion— Development  given  to  it  by  that  Revolution — Gradual  and  ir- 
resistible extension  of  the  elective  qualification. 

WHENEVER  the  political  laws  of  the  United  States  are 
to  be  discussed,  it  is  with  the  doctrine  of  the  sover- 
eignty of  the  people  that  we  must  begin.  The  prin- 
ciple of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people,  which  is  to  be  found,  more 
or  less,  at  the  bottom  of  almost  all  human  institutions,  generally 
remains  concealed  from  view.  It  is  obeyed  without  being  recog- 
nized, or  if  for  a  moment  it  be  brought  to  light,  it  is  hastily  cast 
back  into  the  gloom  of  the  sanctuary.  "  The  will  of  the  nation  " 
is  one  of  those  expressions  which  have  been  most  profusely 
abused  by  the  wily  and  the  despotic  of  every  age.  To  the  eyes 
of  some  it  has  been  represented  by  the  venal  suffrages  of  a  few 
of  the  satellites  of  power ;  to  others  by  the  votes  of  a  timid  or  an 
interested  minority;  and  some  have  even  discovered  it  in  the 
silence  of  a  people,  on  the  supposition  that  the  fact  of  submis- 
sion established  the  right  of  command. 

In  America  the  principle  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  is 
not  either  barren  or  concealed,  as  it  is  with  some  other  nations ; 
it  is  recognized  by  the  customs  and  proclaimed  by  the  laws ;  it 
spreads  freely,  and  arrives  without  impediment  at  its  most  re- 
mote consequences.  If  there  be  a  country  in  the  world  where 
the  doctrine  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  can  be  fairly  appre- 
ciated, where  it  can  be  studied  in  its  application  to  the  aflfairs  of 
society,  and  where  its  dangers  and  its  advantages  may  be  fore- 
seen, that  country  is  assuredly  /America. 

I  have  already  observed  that,  from  their  origin,  the  sover- 
eignty of  the  people  was  the  fundamental  principle  of  the  greater 
number  of  British  colonies  in  America.     It  was  far,  however, 

55 


^1 

!  1 

\     : 


_/ 


56 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


from  then  exercising  as  much  influence  on  the  government  of 
society  as  it  now  does.  Two  obstacles,  the  one  external,  the 
other  internal,  checked  its  invasive  progress.  It  could  not  os- 
tensibly disclose  itself  in  the  laws  of  colonies  which  were  still 
constrained  to  obey  the  mother-country:  it  was  therefore 
obliged  to  spread  secretly,  and  to  gain  ground  in  the  provincial 
assemblies,  and  especially  in  the  townships. 

American  society  was  not  yet  prepared  to  adopt  it  with  all 
its  consequences.  The  intelligence  of  New  England,  and  the 
wealth  of  the  country  to  the  south  of  the  Hudson  (as  I  have 
shown  in  the  preceding  chapter),  long  exercised  a  sort  of  aris- 
tocratic influence,  which  tended  to  retain  the  exercise  of  social 
authority  in  the  hands  of  a  few.  The  public  functionaries  were 
not  universally  elected,  and  the  citizens  were  not  all  of  them  elec- 
tors. The  electoral  franchise  was  everywhere  placed  within  cer- 
tain limits,  and  made  dependent  on  a  certain  qualification,  which 
was  exceedingly  low  in  the  North  and  more  considerable  in  the 
South. 

The  American  revolution  .broke  out,  and  the  doctrine  of  the 
sovereignty  of  the  people,  which  had  been  nurtured  in  the  town- 
ships and  municipalities,  took  possession  of  the  State :  every 
class  was  enlisted  in  its  cause ;  battles  were  fought,  and  victories 
obtained  for  it,  until  it  became  the  law  of  laws. 

A  no  less  rapid  change  was  effected  in  the  interior  of  society, 
where  the  law  of  descent  completed  the  abolition  of  local  in- 
fluences. 

At  the  very  time  when  this  consequence  of  the  laws  and  of 
the  revolution  was  apparent  to  every  eye,  victory  was  irre- 
vocably pronounced  in  favor  of  the  democratic  cause.  All 
power  was,  in  fact,  in  its  hands,  and  resistance  was  no  longer 
possible.  The  higher  orders  submitted  without  a  murmur  and 
without  a  struggle  to  an  evil  which  was  thenceforth  inevitable. 
The  ordinary  fate  of  falling  powers  awaited  them ;  each  of 
their  several  members  followed  his  own  interests ;  and  as  it  was 
impossible  to  wring  the  power  from  the  hands  of  a  people  which 
they  did  not  detest  sufficiently  to  brave,  their  only  aim  was  to 
secure  its  good-will  at  any  price.  The  most  democratic  laws 
were  consequently  voted  by  the  very  men  whose  interests  they 
impaired ;  and  thus,  although  the  higher  classes  did  not  excite 
the  passions  of  the  people  against  their  order,  they  accelerated 
the  triumph  of  the  new  state  of  things ;  so  that  by  a  singular 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


57 


w  • 


change  the  democratic  impulse  was  found  to  be  most  irresistible 
in  the  "cry  States  where  the  aristocracy  had  the  firmest  hold. 
The  State  of  Maryland,  which  had  been  founded  by  men  of 
rank,  was  the  first  to  proclaim  universal  suffrage,  and  to  intro- 
duce the  most  democratic  forms  into  the  conduct  of  its  govern- 
ment. 

When  a  nation  modifies  the  elective  qualification,  it  may  easily 
be  foreseen  that  sooner  or  later  that  qualification  will  be  en- 
tirely abolished.  There  is  no  more  invariable  rule  in  the  history 
of  society :  the  further  electoral  rights  are  extended,  the  greater 
is  the  need  of  extending  them;  for  after  each  concession  the 
strength  of  the  democracy  increases,  and  its  demands  increase 
with  its  strength.  The  ambition  of  those  who  are  below  the 
fippointed  rate  is  irritated  in  exact  proportion  to  the  great  num- 
ber of  those  who  are  above  it.  The  exception  at  last  becomes  the 
rule,  concession  follows  concession,  and  no  stop  can  be  made 
short  of  universal  suffrage. 

At  the  present  day  the  principle  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  peo- 
ple has  acquired,  in  the  United  States,  all  the  practical  develop- 
ment which  the  imagination  can  conceive.  It  is  unencumbered 
by  those  fictions  which  have  been  thrown  over  it  in  other  coun- 
tries, and  it  appears  in  every  possible  form  according  to  the 
exigency  of  the  occasion.  Sometimes  the  laws  are  made  by  the 
people  in  a  body,  as  at  Athens ;  and  sometimes  its  representa- 
tives, chosen  by  universal  suffrage,  transact  business  in  its  name, 
and  almost  under  its  immediate  control. 

In  some  countries  a  power  exists  which,  though  it  is  in  a  de- 
gree foreign  to  the  social  body,  directs  it,  and  forces  it  to  pur- 
sue a  certain  track.  In  others  the  ruling  force  is  divided,  being 
partly  within  and  partly  without  the  ranks  of  the  people.  But 
nothing  of  the  kind  is  to  be  seen  in  the  United  States ;  there  so- 
ciety governs  itself  for  itself.  All  power  centres  in  its  bosom ; 
and  scarcely  an  individual  is  to  be  meet  with  who  would  venture 
to  conceive,  or,  still  less,  to  express,  the  idea  of  seeking  it  else- 
where. The  nation  participates  in  the  making  of  its  laws  by  the 
choice  of  its  legislators,  and  in  the  execution  of  them  by  the 
choice  of  the  agents  of  the  executive  government ;  it  may  al- 
most be  said  to  govern  itself,  so  feeble  and  so  restricted  is  the 
share  left  to  the  administration,  so  little  do  the  authorities  forget 
their  popular  origin  and  the  power  from  which  they  emanate.o 

a  See  Appendix,  H. 


(i 


'/I 


ll 


CHAPTER  V 

NECESSITY  OF  EXAMINING  THE  CONDITION   OF  THE 
STATES  BEFORE  THAT  OF  THE  UNION    AT  LARGE 

IT  is  proposed  to  examine  in  the  following  chapter  v/hat  is 
the  form  of  government  established  in  America  on  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people;  what  are  its  re- 
sources, its  hindrances,  its  advantages,. and  its  dangers.  The 
first  difficulty  which  presents  itself  arises  from  ihe  complex 
nature  of  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  which  consists 
of  two  distinct  soo'ul  structures,  connected  and,  as  it  were,  en- 
cased one  within  the  other ;  two  governments,  completely  sepa- 
rate and  almost  independent,  the  one  fulfilling  the  ordinary 
duties  and  responding  to  the  daily  and  indefinite  calls  of  a  com- 
munity, the  other  circumscribed  within  certain  limits,  and  only 
exercising  an  exceptional  authority  over  the  general  interests  of 
the  country.  In  short,  there  are  twenty-four  small  sovereign 
nations,  whoso  agglomeration  constitutes  the  body  of  the  Union. 
To  examine  the  Union  before  we  have  studied  the  States  would 
be  to  adopt  a  method  filled  with  obstacles.  The  form  of  the 
Fedt  ral  Government  of  the  United  States  was  the  last  which 
was  adopted ;  and  it  is  in  fact  nothing  more  than  a  modifica- 
tion or  a  summary  of  those  republican  principles  which  were 
current  in  the  whole  community  before  it  existed,  and  inde- 
pendently of  its  existence.  Moreover,  the  Federal  Government 
is,  as  I  have  just  observed,  the  exception ;  the  Government  of 
the  States  is  the  rule.  The  author  who  should  attempt  to  exhibit 
the  picture  as  a  whole  before  he  had  explained  its  details  would 
necessarily  fall  into  obscurity  and  repetition. 

The  great  political  principles  which  govern  American  society 
at  this  day  undoubtedly  took  their  origin  and  their  growth  in 
the  State.  It  is  therefore  necessary  to  become  acquainted  with 
the  State  in  order  to  possess  a  clue  to  the  remainder.  The 
States  which  at  present  compose  the  American  Union  all  present 
the  same  features,  as  far  as  regards  the  external  aspect  of  their 

58 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


59 


OF  THE 
LARGE 

;r  v/hat  is 
1  tlic  prin- 
ire  its  re- 
fers.    The 
3  complex 
;h  consists 
were,  en- 
iitely  sepa- 
:  ordinary 
of  a  com- 
,  and  only 
nterests  of 
sovereign 
he  Union, 
ites  would 
rm  of  the 
ast  which 
modifica- 
lich  were 
and  inde- 
)vemment 
nment  of 
to  exhibit 
lils  would 

in  society 
rowth  in 
nted  with 
er.  The 
11  present 
t  of  their 


institutions.  Their  political  or  administrative  existence  is  cen- 
tred in  three  focuses  of  action,  which  may  not  inaptly  be  com- 
pared to  the  different  nervous  centres  which  convey  motion  to 
the  liuii.'an  body.  The  township  is  the  lowest  in  order,  then  the 
county,  and  lastly  the  State ;  and  I  propose  to  devote  the  fol- 
lowing chapter  to  the  examination  of  these  three  divisions. 

The  American  System  of  Townships  and  Municipal 

Bodies 

Why  the  Author  begins  the  examination  of  the  political  institutions 
with  the  township — Its  existence  in  all  rations — Difficulty  of  es- 
tablishing and  preserving  municipal  independence — Its  importance 
— Why  the  Author  has  selected  the  township  system  of  New  Eng- 
land as  the  main  topic  of  his  discussion. 

It  li  not  undc  ign<  Miat  I  begin  this  subject  with  the 
Township.     The  vill  .r  township  is  the  only  association 

which  is  so  perfectly  natural  that  wherever  a  number  of  men 
are  collected  it  si'ems  to  constitute  itself. 

The  town,  or  tithing,  as  the  smallest  division  of  a  community, 
must  necessarily  exist  in  all  nations,  whatever  their  laws  and 
customs  may  be :  if  man  makes  monarchies  and  establishes  re- 
publics, the  first  association  of  mankind  seems  constituted  by 
the  hand  of  God.  But  although  the  existence  of  the  township 
is  coeval  with  that  of  man,  its  liberties  are  not  the  less  rarely  re- 
spected and  easily  destroyed.  A  nation  is  always  able  to  estab- 
lish great  political  assemblies,  because  it  habitually  contains  a 
certain  number  of  individuals  fitted  by  their  talents,  if  not  by 
their  habits,  for  the  direction  of  affairs. '  The  township  is,  on 
the  contrary,  composed  of  coarser  materials,  which  are  less 
easily  fashioned  by  the  legislator.  The  difficulties  which  attend 
the  consolidation  of  its  independence  rather  augment  than  di- 
minish with  the  increasing  enlightenment  of  the  people.  A 
highly  civilized  community  spurns  the  attempts  of  a  local  in- 
dependence, is  disgusted  at  its  numerous  blunders,  and  is  apt 
to  despair  of  success  before  the  experiment  is  completed.  Again, 
no  immunities  are  so  ill  protected  from  the  encroachments  of 
the  supreme  power  as  those  of  municipal  bodies  in  general: 
they  are  unable  to  struggle,  single-handed,  against  a  strong  or 
an  enterprising  government,  and  they  cannot  defend  their  cause 
with  success  unless  it  be  identified  with  the  customs  of  the  na- 
tion and  supported  by  public  opinion.     Thus  until  the  inde- 


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pendence  of  townships  is  amalgamated  with  the  manners  of  a 
people  it  is  easily  destroyed,  and  it  is  only  after  a  long  existence 
in  the  laws  that  it  can  be  thus  amalg^amated.  Municipal  free- 
dom is  not  the  fruit  of  human  device ;  it  is  rarely  created ;  but 
it  is,  as  it  were,  secretly  and  spontaneously  engendered  in  the 
midst  of  a  semi-barbarous  state  of  society.  The  constant  ac- 
tion of  the  laws  and  the  national  habits,  peculiar  circumstances, 
and  above  all  time,  may  consolidate  it ;  but  there  is  certainly  no 
nation  on  the  continent  of  Europe  which  has  experienced  its 
advantages.  Nevertheless  local  assemblies  of  citizens  consti- 
tute the  strength  of  free  nations.  Town-meetings  are  to  liberty 
what  primary  schools  are  to  science;  they  bring  it  within  the 
people's  reach,  they  teach  men  how  to  use  and  how  to  enjoy  it. 
A  nation  may  establish  a  system  of  free  government,  but  with- 
out the  spirit  of  municipal  institutions  it  cannot  have  the  spirit 
of  liberty.  The  transient  passions  and  the  interests  of  an  hour, 
or  the  chance  of  circumstances,  may  have  created  the  external 
forms  of  independence;  but  the  despotic  tendency  which  has 
been  repelled  will,  sooner  or  later,  inevitably  reappear  on  the 
surface. 

In  order  to  explain  to  the  reader  the  general  principles  on 
which  the  political  organization  of  the  counties  and  townships 
of  the  United  States  rests,  I  have  thought  it  expedient  to  choose 
one  of  the  States  of  New  England  as  an  example,  to  examine 
the  mechanism  of  its  constitution,  and  then  to  cast  a  general 
glance  over  the  country.  The  township  and  the  county  are  not 
organized  in  the  same  manner  in  every  part  of  the  Union ;  it  is, 
however,  easy  to  percdve  that  the  same  principles  have  guided 
the  formation  of  both  of  them  throughout  the  Union.  I  am  in- 
clined to  believe  that  these  principles  have  been  carried  further 
in  New  England  than  elsewhere,  and  consequently  that  they  of- 
fer greater  facilities  to  the  observations  of  a  stranger.  The  in- 
stitutions of  New  England  form  a  complete  and  regular  whole ; 
they  have  received  the  sanction  of  time,  they  have  the  support  of 
the  laws,  and  the  still  stronger  support  of  the  manners  of  the 
community,  over  which  they  exercise  the  most  prodigious  in- 
fluence ;  they  consequently  deserve  our  attention  on  every  ac- 
count. • 


■-  ^ytittwufiJfM'^  Jill** 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


6i 


Limits  of  the  Township 

The  township  of  New  England  is  a  division  which  stands 
between  the  commune  and  the  canton  of  France,  and  which  cor- 
responds in  general  to  the  English  tithing,  or  town.  Its  average 
population  is  from  two  to  three  thousand ;  a  so  that,  on  the  one 
hand,  the  interests  of  its  inhabitants  are  not  likely  to  conflict, 
and,  on  the  other,  men  capable  of  conducting  its  affairs  are  al- 
ways to  be  found  among  its  citizens. 


/ 


)'   ^ 


Authorities  of  the  Township  in  New  England 

The  people  the  source  of  all  power  here  as  elsewhere — Manages  its 
own  affairs — No  corporation — The  greater  part  of  the  authority 
vested  in  the  hands  of  the  Selectmen — How  the  Selectmen  act — 
Town-meeting — Enumeration  of  the  public  officers  of  the  township 
— Obligatory  and  remunerated  functions. 

In  the  township,  as  well  as  everywhere  else,  the  people  is  the 
only  source  of  power ;  but  in  no  stage  of  government  does  the 
body  of  citizens  exercise  a  more  immediate  influence.  In 
America  the  people  is  a  master  whose  exigencies  demand  obedi- 
ence to  the  utmost  limits  of  possibility. 

In  New  England  the  majority  acts  by  representatives  in  the 
conduct  of  the  public  business  of  the  State ;  but  if  such  an  ar- 
rangement be  necessary  in  general  affairs,  in  the  townships, 
where  the  legislative  and  administrative  action  of  the  govern- 
ment is  in  more  immediate  contact  with  the  subject,  the  system 
of  representation  is  not  adopted.  There  is  no  corporation ;  but 
the  body  of  electors,  after  having  designated  its  magistrates, 
directs  them  in  everything  that  exceeds  the  simple  and  ordi- 
nary executive  business  of  the  State.6 

This  state  of  things  is  so  contrary  to  our  ideas,  and  so  differ- 
ent from  our  customs,  that  it  is  necessary  for  me  to  adduce 
some  examples  to  explain  it  thoroughly. 

The  public  duties  in  the  township  are  extremely  numerous 
and  minutely  divided,  as  we  shall  see  further  on ;  but  the  larger 
proportion  of  administrative  power  is  vested  in  the  hands  of  a 

a  In  1830  there  were  305  townships  in 
the  State  of  Massachusetts,  and  610,014 
inhabitants,  which  gives  an  average  of 
about  2,000  inhabitants  to  each  township. 

ft  The  same  rules  are  not  applicable  to 
the  great  towns,  which   generally  have 


a  mayor,  and  a  corporation  divided  into 
two  bodies  ;  this,  however,  is  an  ex- 
ception which  requires  the  sanction  of 


a  law.— See  the  Act  of  February  22, 
1822,  for  appointing  the  authorities  of 
the  city  of  Boston.  It  frequently  hap- 
pens that  small  towns  as  well  as  cities 
are  subject  to  a  peculiar  administration. 
In  1832,  104  townships  in  the  State  of 
New  York  were  governed  in  this  man- 
ner.—WiV/wmj'  Register. 


\i; 


i 


u 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


< 


K>« 


small  number  of  individuals,  called  "  the  Selectmen."  e  The 
general  laws  of  the  State  impose  a  certain  number  of  obliga- 
tions on  the  selectmen,  which  they  may  fulfil  without  the  au- 
thorization of  the  body  they  represent,  but  which  they  can  only 
neglect  on  their  own  responsibility.  The  law  of  the  State 
obliges  them,  for  instance,  to  draw  up  the  list  of  electors  in 
their  townships ;  and  if  they  omit  this  part  of  their  functions, 
they  are  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor.  In  all  the  affairs,  however, 
which  are  determined  by  the  town-meeting,  the  selectmen  are 
the  organs  of  the  popular  mandate,  as  in  France  the  Maire  exe- 
cutes the  decree  of  the  municipal  council.  They  usually  act 
upon  their  own  responsibility,  and  merely  put  in  practice  prin- 
ciples which  have  been  previously  recognized  by  the  majority. 
But  if  any  change  is  to  be  introduced  in  the  existing  state  of 
things,  or  if  they  wish  to  undertake  any  new  enterprise,  they 
are  obliged  to  refer  to  the  source  of  their  power.  If,  for  in- 
stance, a  school  is  to  be  established,  the  selectmen  convoke  the 
whole  body  of  the  electors  on  a  certain  day  at  an  appointed 
place;  they  explain  the  urgency  of  the  case;  they  give  their 
opinion  on  the  means  of  satisfying  it,  on  the  probable  expense, 
and  the  site  which  seems  to  be  most  favorable.  The  meeting  is 
consulted  on  these  several  points ;  it  adopts  the  principle,  marks 
out  the  site,  votes  the  rate,  and  confides  the  execution  of  its 
resolution  to  the  selectmen. 

The  selectmen  have  alone  the  right  of  calling  a  town-meeting, 
but  they  may  be  requested  to  do  so :  if  ten  citizens  are  desirous 
of  submitting  a  new  project  to  the  assent  of  the  township,  they 
may  demand  a  general  convocation  of  the  inhabitants ;  the  se- 
lectmen are  obliged  to  comply,  but  they  have  only  the  right  of 
presiding  at  the  meeting.^ 

The  selectmen  are  elected  every  year  in  the  month  of  April 
or  of  May.  The  town-meeting  chooses  at  the  same  time  a  num- 
ber of  other  municipal  magistrates,  who  are  entrusted  with  im- 
portant administrative  functions.  The  assessors  rate  the  town- 
ship ;  the  collectors  receive  the  rate.  A  constable  is  appointed  to 
keep  the  peace,  to  watch  the  streets,  and  to  forward  the  execu- 
tion of  the  laws;   the  town-clerk  records  all  the  town  votes. 


c  Three  selectmen  are  appointed  in  the 
small  townships,  and  nine  in  t' 
ones.    See  "  The  Town-Officer,'    . 
See  also  the  principal  laws  of  the  State 
of  Massachusetts  relative  to  the  select- 
men : 

Act  of  February  20,   1786,  vol.  1.  p. 


ted  in  the  219  ;  February  24,  1706,  vol.  t.  p.  488  ; 
the  large  March  7,  1801,  vol.  ii.  p.  45  ;  June  16, 
,"  p.  186.        179s,  vol.  i.  p.  475  ;  March  12,  1808,  vol. 

ii.  p.  i8ti  ;  February  28,  1787,  vol.  i.  p. 

302;  June  22,  1797,  vol.  i.  p.  539. 
d  See  Laws  of  Massachusetts,  vol,  L 

p.  150,  Act  of  March  25,  1786. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA  ^ 

orders,  grants,  births,  deaths,  and  marriages;  the  treasurer 
keeps  the  funds ;  the  overseer  of  the  poor  performs  the  difficult 
task  of  superintending  the  action  of  the  poor-laws ;  committee- 
men are  appointed  to  attend  to  the  schools  and  to  public  instruc- 
tion ;  and  the  road-surveyors,  who  take  care  of  the  greater  and 
lesser  thoroughfares  of  the  township,  complete  the  list  of  the 
principal  functionaries.  They  are,  however,  still  further  sub- 
divided; and  amongst  the  municipal  officers  are  to  be  found 
parish  commissioners,  who  audit  the  expenses  of  public  wor- 
ship ;  different  classes  of  inspectors,  some  of  whom  are  to  direct 
the  citizens  in  case  of  fire;  tithing-men,  listers,  hay  wards, 
chimney-viewers,  fence-viewers  to  maintain  the  bounds  of  prop- 
erty, timber-measurers,  and  sealers  of  weights  and  measures.? 

There  are  nineteen  principal  officers  in  a  township.  Every 
inhabitant  is  constrained,  on  the  pain  of  being  fined,  to  under- 
take these  different  functions;  which,  however,  are  almost  all 
paid,  in  order  that  the  poorer  citizens  may  be  able  to  give  up 
their  time  without  loss.  In  general  the  American  system  is  not 
to  grant  a  fixed  salary  to  its  functionaries.  Every  service  has 
its  price,  and  they  are  remunerated  in  proportion  to  what  they 
have  done. 


/ 


/ 


in 

,1 


'  tj 


Existence  of  the  Township 

Every  one  the  best  judge  of  his  own  interest — Corollary  of  the  principle 
of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people — Application  of  those  doctrines  in 
the  townships  of  America — The  township  of  New  England  is  sover- 
eign in  all  tha..  concerns  itself  alone:  subject  to  the  State  in  all  other 
matters — Bond  of  the  township  and  the  State — In  France  the  Gov- 
ernment lends  its  agent  to  the  Commune — In  America  the  reverse 
occurs. 

I  have  already  observed  that  the  principle  of  the  sovereignty 
of  the  people  governs  the  whole  political  system  of  the  Anglo- 
Americans.  Every  page  of  this  book  will  afford  new  instances 
of  the  same  doctrine.  In  the  nations  by  which  the  sovereignty 
of  the  people  is  recognized  every  individual  possesses  an  equal 
share  of  power,  and  participates  alike  in  the  government  of  the 
State.  Every  individual  is,  therefore,  supposed  to  be  as  well 
informed,  as  virtuous,  and  as  strong  as  any  of  his  fellow-citi- 
zens.   He  obeys  the  government,  not  because  he  is  inferior  to 


e  All  these  magistrates  actually  exist  : 
their  different  functions  are  all  detailed 
in  a  book  called  "  The  Town-Officer," 


by  Isaac  Goodwin,  Worcester,  1827  :  and 
in  the  "  Collection  of  the  General  Laws 
of  Massachusetts,"  3  vols.,  Boston,  1823. 


y 


ft 

h  i 


•i 


i 


1 


i 


64 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


the  authorities  which  conduct  it,  or  that  he  is  less  capable  than 
his  neighbor  of  governing  himself,  but  because  he  acknowledges 
the  utility  of  an  association  with  his  fellow-men,  and  because 
he  knows  that  no  such  association  can  exist  without  a  regulat- 
ing force.  If  he  be  a  subject  in  all  that  concerns  the  mutual  rela- 
tions of  citizens,  he  is  free  and  responsible  to  God  alone  for  all  \ 
that  concerns  himself.  Hence  arises  the  maxim  that  every  one 
is  the  best  and  the  sole  judge  of  his  own  private  interest,  and 
that  society  has  no  right  to  control  a  man's  actions,  unless  they 
are  prejudicial  to  the  common  weal,  or  unless  the  common  weal 
demands  his  co-operation.  This  doctrine  is  universally  ad- 
mitted in  the  United  States.  I  shall  hereafter  examine  the 
general  influence  which  it  exercises  on  the  ordinary  actions  of  ' 
life ;  I  am  now  speaking  of  the  nature  of  municipal  bodies. 

The  township,  taken  as  a  whole,  and  in  relation  to  the  gov- 
ernment of  the  country,  may  be  looked  upon  as  an  individual  to 
whom  the  theory  I  have  just  alluded  to  is  applied.  Municipal 
independence  is  therefore  a  natural  consequence  of  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  in  the  United  States :  all 
the  American  republics  recognize  it  more  or  less ;  but  circum- 
stances have  peculiarly  favored  its  growth  in  New  England. 

In  this  part  of  the  Union  the  impulsion  of  political  activity 
was  given  in  the  townships;  and  it  may  almost  be  said  that 
each  of  them  originally  formed  an  independent  nation.  When 
the  Kings  of  England  asserted  their  supremacy,  they  were  con- 
tented to  assume  the  central  power  of  the  State.  The  town- 
ships of  New  England  remained  as  they  were  before ;  and  al- 
though they  are  now  subject  to  the  State,  they  were  at  first 
scarcely  dependent  upon  it.  It  is  important  to  remember  that 
they  have  not  been  invested  with  privileges,  but  that  they  have, 
on  the  contrary,  forfeited  a  portion  of  their  independence  to  tht 
State.  The  townships  are  only  subordinate  to  the  State  in 
those  interests  which  I  shall  term  social,  as  they  are  common 
to  all  the  citizens.  They  are  independent  in  all  that  concerns 
themselves;  and  amongst  the  inhabitants  of  New  England  I 
believe  that  not  a  man  is  to  be  found  who  would  acknowledge 
that  the  State  has  any  right  to  interfere  in  their  local  interests. 
The  towns  of  New  England  buy  and  sell,  sue  or  are  sued,  aug- 
ment or  diminish  their  rates,  without  the  slightest  opposition  on 
the  part  of  the  administrative  authority  of  the  State. 

They  are  bound,  however,  to  comply  with  the  demands  of  the 


IT 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


65 


/ 


^ 


community.  If  the  State  is  in  need  of  money,  a  town  can 
neither  give  nor  withhold  the  supplies.  If  the  State  projects 
a  road,  the  township  cannot  refuse  to  let  it  cross  its  territory ; 
if  a  police  regulation  is  made  by  the  State,  it  must  be  enforced 
by  the  town.  A  uniform  system  of  instruction  is  organized  all 
over  the  country,  and  every  town  is  bound  to  establish  the 
schools  which  the  law  ordains.  In  speaking  of  the  administra- 
tion of  the  United  States  I  shall  have  occasion  to  point  out  the 
means  by  which  the  townships  are  compelled  to  obey  in  these 
different  cases:  I  here  merely  show  the  existence  of  the  obliga- 
tion. Strict  as  this  obligation  is,  the  government  of  the  State 
imposes  it  in  principle  only,  and  in  its  performance  the  town- 
ship resumes  all  its  independent  rights.  Thus,  taxes  are  voted 
by  the  State,  but  they  are  levied  and  collected  by  the  township ; 
the  existence  of  a  school  is  obligatory,  but  the  township  builds, 
pays,  and  superintends  it.  In  France  the  State-collector  re- 
ceives the  local  imposts ;  in  America  the  town-collector  receives 
the  taxes  of  the  State.  Thus  the  French  Government  lends  its 
agents  to  the  commune ;  in  America  the  township  is  the  agent 
of  the  Government.  This  fact  alone  shows  the  extent  of  the 
differences  which  exist  between  the  two  nations. 


/ 
# 


m 


the 


Public  Spirit  of  the  Townships  of  New  England 

How  the  township  of  New  England  wins  the  affections  of  its  inhabi- 
tants— Difficulty  of  creating  local  public  spirit  in  Europe — The 
rights  and  duties  of  the  American  township  favorable  to  it — Char- 
acteristics of  home  in  the  United  States — Manifestations  of  public 
spirit  in  New  England — Its  happy  effects. 

In  America,  not  only  do  municipal  bodies  exist,  but  they 
are  kept  alive  and  supported  by  public  spirit.  The  township 
of  New  England  possesses  two  advantages  which  infallibly  V 
secure  the  attentive  interest  of  mankind,  namely,  independence  y 
and  authority.  Its  sphere  is  indeed  small  and  limited,  but 
within  that  sphere  its  action  is  unrestrained ;  and  its  independ- 
ence gives  to  it  a  real  importance  which  its  extent  and  popula- 
tion may  not  always  ensure. 

It  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  affections  of  men  generally 
lie  on  the  side  of  authority.    Patriotism  is  not  durable  in  a  con- 
quered nation.    The  New  Englander  is  attached  to  his  town- 
ship, not  only  because  he  was  born  in  it,  but  because  it  con- 
VoL.  I.— 5 


66 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


I 


J 


stitutes  a  social  body  of  which  he  is  a  member,  and  whose 
government  claims  and  deserves  the  exercise  of  his  sagacity. 
In  Europe  the  absence  of  local  public  spirit  is  a  frequent  sub- 
ject of  regret  to  those  who  are  in  power;  every  one  agrees 
that  there  is  no  surer  guarantee  of  order  and  tranquillity,  and 
yet  nothing  is  more  difficult  to  create.  If  the  municipal  bodies 
were  made  powerful  and  independent,  the  authorities  of  the 
nation  might  be  disunited  and  the  peace  of  the  country  endan- 
gered. Yet,  without  power  and  independence,  a  town  may 
contain  good  subjects,  but  it  can  have  no  active  citizens.  An- 
other important  fact  is  that  the  township  of  New  England  is  so 
constituted  as  to  excite  the  warmest  of  human  affections,  with- 
out arousing  the  ambitious  passions  of  the  heart  of  man.  The 
officers  of  the  county  are  not  elected,  and  their  authority  is  very 
limited.  Even  the  State  is  only  a  second-rate  community, 
whose  tranquil  and  obscure  administration  offers  no  induce- 
ment sufficient  to  draw  men  away  from  the  circle  of  their  in- 
terests into  the  turmoil  of  public  affairs.  The  federal  govern- 
ment confers  power  and  honor  on  the  men  who  conduct  it; 
but  these  individuals  can  never  be  very  numerous.  The  high 
station  of  the  Presidency  can  only  be  reached  at  an  advanced 
period  of  life,  and  the  other  federal  functionaries  are  generally 
men  who  have  been  favored  by  fortune,  or  distinguished  in 
some  other  career.  Such  cannot  be  the  permanent  aim  of  the 
ambitious.  But  the  township  serves  as  a  centre  for  the  desire 
of  public  esteem,  the  want  of  exciting  interests,  and  the  taste 
for  authority  and  popularity,  in  the  midst  of  the  ordinary  rela- 
tions of  life ;  and  the  passions  which  commonly  embroil  society 
change  their  character  when  they  find  a  vent  so  near  the  do- 
mestic hearth  and  the  family  circle. 

In  the  American  States  power  has  been  disseminated  with 
admirable  skill  for  the  purpose  of  interesting  the  greatest  pos- 
sible number  of  persons  in  the  common  weal.  Independently 
of  the  electors  who  are  from  time  to  time  called  into  action,  the 
body  politic  is  divided  into  innumerable  functionaries  and  offi- 
cers, who  all,  in  their  several  spheres,  represent  the  same  power- 
ful whole  in  whose  name  they  act.  The  local  administration 
thus  affords  an  unfailing  source  of  profit  and  interest  to  a  vast 
number  of  individuals. 

The  American  system,  which  divides  the  local  authority 
fimong  so  n\^ny  citizens,  does  not  scruple  to  multiply  the  func- 


mtBsaanMim 


:i 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA  ^| 

tions  of  the  town  officers.  For  in  the  United  States  it  is  be- 
Heved,  and  with  truth,  that  patriotism  is  a  kind  of  devotion 
which  is  strengthened  by  ritual  observance.  In  this  manner 
the  activity  of  the  township  is  continually  perceptible ;  it  is  daily 
manifested  in  the  fulfilment  of  a  duty  or  the  exercise  of  a  right, 
and  a  constant  though  gentle  motion  is  thus  kept  up  in  society 
which  animates  without  disturbing  it. 

The  American  attaches  himself  to  his  home  as  the  moun- 
taineer clings  to  his  hills,  because  the  characteristic  features  of 
his  country  are  there  more  distinctly  marked  than  elsewhere. 
The  existence  of  the  townships  of  New  England  is  in  general 
a  happy  one.  Their  government  is  suited  to  their  tastes,  and 
chosen  by  themselves.  In  the  midst  of  the  profound  peace  and 
general  comfort  which  reign  in  America  the  commotions  of 
municipal  discord  are  unfrequent.  The  conduct  of  local  busi- 
ness is  easy.  The  political  education  of  the  people  has  long 
been  complete ;  say  rather  that  it  was  complete  when  the  peo- 
ple first  set  foot  upon  the  soil.  In  New  England  no  tradition 
exists  of  a  distinction  of  ranks ;  no  portion  of  the  community 
is  tempted  to  oppress  the  remainder;  and  the  abuses  which 
may  injure  isolated  individuals  are  forgotten  in  the  general 
contentment  which  prevails.  If  the  government  is  defective 
(and  it  would  no  doubt  be  easy  to  point  out  its  deficiencies), 
the  fact  that  it  really  emanates  from  those  it  governs,  and  that 
it  acts,  either  ill  or  well,  casts  the  protecting  spell  of  a  parental 
pride  over  its  faults.  No  term  of  comparison  disturbs  the  sat- 
isfaction of  the  citizen :  England  formerly  governed  the  mass 
of  the  colonies,  but  the  people  vvas  always  sovereign  in  the 
township  where  its  rule  is  not  only  an  ancient  but  a  primitive 
state. 

The  native  of  New  England  is  attached  to  hi?  mwnship  be- 
cause it  is  independent  and  free :  his  co-  operation  '  n  its  affairs 
ensures  his  attachment  to  its  interest ;  the  well-being  it  affords 
him  secures  his  affection;  and  its  welfare  is  the  aim  of  his 
ambition  and  of  his  future  exertions :  he  takes  a  part  in  every 
occurrence  in  the  place ;  he  practises  the  art  of  government  in 
the  small  sphere  within  his  reach;  he  accustoms  himself  to 
those  forms  which  can  alone  ensure  the  steady  progress  of 
liberty;  he  imbibes  their  spirit;  he  acquires  a  taste  for  order, 
comprehends  the  union  or  the  balance  of  powers,  and  collects 


/ 


h' 


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: 


I 


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I  r 


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!         I 


S;  ; 
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;i'i     i 


n  i 


68 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


clear  practical  notions  on  the  nature  of  his  duties  and  the  ex- 
tent of  his  rights. 

The  Counties  of  New  England 

The  division  of  the  counties  in  America  has  considerable 
analogy  with  that  of  the  arrondissements  of  France.  The  limits 
of  the  counties  are  arbitrarily  laid  down,  and  the  various  dis- 
tricts which  they  contain  have  no  necessary  connection,  no 
common  tradition  or  natural  sympathy ;  their  object  is  simply 
to  facilitate  the  administration  of  justice. 

The  extent  of  the  township  was  too  small  to  contain  a  system 
of  judicial  institutions ;  each  county  has,  however,  a  court  of 
justice,'  a  sheriflf  to  execute  its  decrees,  and  a  prison  for  crimi- 
nals. There  are  certain  wants  which  are  felt  alike  by  all  the 
townships  of  a  county ;  it  is  therefore,  natural  that  they  should 
be  satisfied  by  a  central  authority.  In  the  State  of  Massachu- 
setts this  authority  is  vested  in  the  hands  of  several  magistrates, 
who  are  appointed  by  the  Governor  of  the  State,  with  the 
advice  8  of  his  council.*  The  officers  of  the  county  have  only  a 
limited  and  occasional  authority,  which  is  applicable  to  certain 
predetermined  cases.  The  State  and  the  townships  possess  all 
the  power  requisite  to  conduct  public  business.  The  budget 
of  the  county  is  drawn  up  by  its  officers,  and  is  voted  by  the 
legislature,  but  there  is  no  assembly  which  directly  or  indi- 
rectly represents  the  county.  It  has,  therefore,  properly  speak- 
ing, no  political  existence. 

A  twofold  tendency  may  be  discerned  in  the  American  con- 
stitutions, which  impels  the  legislator  to  centralize  the  legisla- 
tive and  to  disperse  the  executive  power.  The  township  of 
New  England  has  in  itself  an  indestructible  element  of  inde- 
pendence ;  and  this  distinct  existence  could  only  be  fictitiously 
introduced  into  the  county,  where  its  utility  has  not  been  felt. 
But  all  the  townships  united  have  but  one  representation,  which 
is  the  State,  the  centre  of  the  national  authority :  beyond  the 
action  of  the  township  and  that  of  the  nation,  nothing  can  be 
said  to  exist  but  the  influence  of  individual  exertion. 


fSee  the  Act  of  Februarjr  14,  1821, 
Laws  of  Massachusetts,  vol.  i.  p.  551. 

g  Sec  the  Act  of  Februarjr  20,  1819, 
Laws  of  Massachusetts,  vol.  li.  p.  494. 


h  The  council  of  the  Governor  is  an 
elective  body. 


DE  rOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


Administration  in  New  England 

Administration  not  perceived  in  America— Why? — The  Europeans  be- 
lieve that  liberty  is  promoted  by  depriving  the  social  authority  of 
some  of  its  rights;  the  Americans,  by  dividing  its  exercise — Almost 
all  the  administration  confined  to  the  township,  and  divided  amongst 
the  town-officers — No  trace  of  an  administrative  body  to  be  per- 
ceived, either  in  the  township  or  above  it— The  reason  of  this— How 
it  happens  that  the  administration  of  the  State  is  uniform — Who  is 
empowered  to  enforce  the  obedience  of  the  township  and  the  county 
to  the  law — The  introduction  of  judicial  power  into  the  administra- 
tion— Consequence  of  the  extension  of  the  elective  principle  to  all 
functionaries — The  Justice  of  the  Peace  in  New  England — By  whom 
appointed — County  officer:  ensures  the  administration  of  the  town- 
ships— Court  of  Sessions — Its  action — Right  of  inspection  and  in- 
dictment disseminated  like  the  other  administrative  functions — In- 
formers encouraged  by  the  division  of  fines. 

Nothing  is  more  striking  to  an  European  traveller  in  the 
United  States  than  the  absence  of  what  we  term  the  Govern- 
ment, or  the  Administration.  Written  laws  exist  in  America, 
and  one  sees  that  they  are  daily  executed ;  but  although  every- 
thing is  in  motion,  the  hand  which  gives  the  impulse  to  the 
social  machine  can  nowhere  be  discovered.  Nevertheless,  as  all 
peoples  are  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  certain  grammatical 
forms,  which  are  the  foundation  of  human  language,  in  order 
to  express  their  thoughts;  so  all  communities  are  obliged  to 
secure  their  existence  by  submitting  to  a  certain  dose  of  author- 
ity, without  which  they  fall  a  prey  to  anarchy.  This  authority 
may  be  distributed  in  several  ways,  but  it  must  always  exist 
somewhere. 

There  are  two  methods  of  diminishing  the  force  of  authority 
in  a  nation :  The  first  is  to  weaken  the  supreme  power  in  its 
very  principle,  by  forbidding  or  preventing  society  from  acting 
in  its  own  defence  under  certain  circumstances.  To  weaken 
authority  in  this  manner  is  what  is  generally  termed  in  Europe 
to  lay  the  foundations  of  freedom.  The  second  manner  of 
diminishing  the  influence  of  authority  does  not  consist  in  strip- 
ping society  of  any  of  its  rights,  nor  in  paralyzing  its  efforts, 
but  in  distributing  the  exercise  of  its  privileges  in  various 
hands,  and  in  multiplying  functionaries,  to  each  of  whom  the 
degree  of  power  necessary  for  him  to  perform  his  duty  is  en- 
trusted. There  may  be  nations  whom  this  distribution  of  social 
powers  might  lead  to  anarchy ;  but  in  itself  it  is  not  anarchical. 


It 


H 


\i 


|»  DR  TOCQUF.VILLE 

The  action  of  authority  is  indeed  thus  rendered  less  irresistible 
and  less  perilous,  hut  it  is  not  totally  suppressed. 

The  revolution  of  the  United  States  was  the  result  of  a  mature 
and  dignified  taste  for  freedom,  and  not  of  a  vague  or  ill-defined 
craving  for  independence.  It  contracted  no  alliance  with  the 
turbulent  passions  of  anarchy ;  but  its  course  was  marked,  on 
the  contrary,  by  an  attachment  to  whatever  was  lawful  and 
orderly. 

It  was  never  assumed  in  the  United  States  that  the  citizen 
of  a  free  country  has  a  right  to  do  whatever  he  pleases ;  on  the 
contrary,  social  obligations  were  there  imposed  upon  him  more 
various  than  anywhere  else.  No  idea  was  ever  entertained  of 
attacking  the  principles  or  of  contesting  the  rights  of  society ; 
but  the  exercise  of  its  authority  was  divided,  to  the  end  that 
the  office  might  be  powerful  and  the  officer  insignificant,  and 
that  the  community  should  be  at  once  regulated  and  free.  In 
no  country  in  the  world  does  the  law  hold  so  absolute  a  lan- 
guage as  in  America,  and  in  no  country  is  the  right  of  applying 
it  vested  in  so  many  hands.  The  administrative  power  in  the 
Unit'  d  States  presents  nothing  either  central  or  hierarchical 
in  its  constitution,  which  accounts  for  its  passing,  unperceived. 
The  power  exists,  but  its  representative  is  not  to  be  perceived. 

We  have  already  seen  that  the  independent  townships  of 
New  England  protect  their  own  private  interests;  and  the 
municipal  magistrates  are  the  persons  to  whom  the  execution 
of  the  laws  of  the  State  is  most  frequently  entrusted.*  Besides 
the  general  laws,  the  State  sometimes  passes  general  police 
regulations;  but  more  commonly  the  townships  and  town- 
officers,  conjointly  with  the  justices  of  the  peace,  regulate  the 
minor  details  of  social  life,  according  to  the  necessities  of  the 
different  localities,  and  promulgate  such  enactments  as  concern 
the  health  of  the  community,  and  the  peace  as  well  as  morality 
of  the  citizens./  Lastly,  these  municipal  magistrates  provide, 
of  their  own  accord  and  without  any  delegated  powers,  for 


i5?ee  "The  Town-Officer,"  especially 
at  the  words  Selectmen,  Assessors,  Col- 
lectors, Schools,  Surveyors  of  High- 
ways. I  take  one  ex.nmple  in  a  thou- 
sand :  the  State  prohibits  travelling  on 
the  Sunday  ;  the  tylhinp-men,  who  are 
town-officers,  are  specially  charged  to 
keep  watch  and  to  execute  the  law.  _  See 
the  Laws  of   Massachusetts,  vol.   i.   p. 


410. 


The  selectmen  draw  up  the  lists  of 


electors  for  the  election  of  the  Governor, 
and  transmit  the  result  of  the  ballot  to 
the  Secretary  of  the  State.  Cee  Act  of 
February  24,  1796  :  Id.,  vol.  i.  p.  488. 

i  Thus,  for  instance,  the  selectmen  au- 
thorize the  construction  of  drains,  point 
out  the  proper  sites  for  slaughter-houses 
and  other  trades  which  are  a  nuisance 
to  the  neighborhood.  See  the  Act  of 
June  7,  178s  :  Id.,  vol,  I.  p.  193. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


»1 


those  unforeseen  emergencies  which  frequently  occur  in  so- 
ciety.* 

It  results  from  what  we  have  said  that  in  the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts the  administrative  authority  is  almost  entirely  re- 
stricted to  the  township,/  but  that  it  is  distributed  among  a  great  ^ 
number  of  individuals.  In  the  French  commune  there  is  prop- 
erly but  one  official  functionary,  namely,  the  Maire;  and  in  J 
New  England  we  have  seen  that  there  are  nineteen.  These 
nineteen  functionaries  do  not  in  general  depend  upon  one  an- 
other. The  law  carefully  prescribes  a  circle  of  action  to  each 
of  these  magistrates ;  and  within  that  circle  they  have  an  entire 
right  to  perform  their  functions  independently  of  any  other 
authority.  Above  the  township  scarcely  any  trace  of  a  series 
of  official  dignitaries  is  to  be  found.  It  sometimes  happens, 
that  the  county  officers  alter  a  decision  of  the  townships  or 
town  magistrates.tw  but  in  general  the  authorities  of  the  county 
have  no  right  to  interfere  with  the  authorities  of  the  township,n 
except  in  such  matters  as  concern  the  county. 

The  magistrates  of  the  township,  as  well  as  those  of  the 
county,  are  bound  to  communicate  their  acts  to  the  central 
government  in  a  very  small  number  of  predetermined  cases.o 
But  the  central  government  is  not  represented  by  an  individual 
whose  business  it  is  to  publish  police  regulations  and  ordi- 
nances enforcing  the  execution  of  the  laws ;  to  keep  up  a  regular 
communication  with  the  officers  of  the  township  and  the 
county ;  to  inspect  their  conduct,  to  direct  their  actions,  or  to  « 
reprimand  their  faults.  There  is  no  point  which  serves  as  a 
centre  to  the  radii  of  the  administration. 

What,  then,  is  the  uniform  plan  on  which  the  government  is 
conducted,  and  how  is  the  compliance  of  the  counties  and  their 

aions,  and  they  may  grant  the  license. 
See  Act  of  March  la,  1808,  vol.  ii.  p.  186. 
The  townships  have  the  right  to  make 
by-laws,  and  to  enforce  them  by  fines 
which  are  fixed  by  law  ;  but  these  by- 
laws must  be  approved  by  the  Court  of 
Sessions.     See  Act  of  March 


k  The  selectmen  take  measures  for  the 
security  of  the  public  in  case  of  con- 
tagious diseases,  conjointly  with  the 
justices  of  the  peace.  See  Act  of  June 
22.   1797,  vol.   i.  p.  530. 

/ 1  say  almost,  for  there  are  various 
circumst.inces  in  the  annnts  of  a  town- 
ship which  are  regulated  by  the  justice 
of  the  peace  in  his  individual  capacity, 
or  by  the  justices  of  the  peace  assembled 
in  the  chief  town  of  the  county  ;  thus 
licenses  are  granted  by  the  justices.  See 
the  Act  of  February  28,  1787,  vol.  i.  p. 
297. 

m  Thus  licenses  are  only  granted  to 
such  persons  as  can  produce  a  certifi- 
cate 01  good  conduct  from  the  selectmen. 
If  the  selectmen  refuse  to  give  the  certi- 
ficate, the  party  may  appeal  to  the  jus- 
tices assembled  in  the   Court  of   Ses- 


vol.  i.  p.  254, 
n  In  M 


23,   1786, 


assachusetts  the  county  magis- 
trates  are  frequently  called  upon  to  in- 
vestigate the  acts  of  the  town  magis- 
trates ;_  but  it  will  be  shown  further  on 
that  this  investigation  is  a  consequence, 
not  of  their  administrative,  but  of  their 
judicial  power. 

oThe  town  committees  of  schools  are 
obliged  to  make  an  annual  report  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  State  on  the  condition 
of  the  school.  See  Act  of  March  lo^ 
1827,  vol.  iii.  p.  i8j. 


»« 


DE  TOCQUEVILLfi     . 


:■  ; 


tl   i 


ir  ' 


'i 


!i 


magistrates  or  the  townships  and  their  officers  enforced?  In 
the  States  of  New  England  the  legislative  authority  embraces 
more  subjects  than  it  does  in  France ;  the  legislator  penetrates 
to  the  verv  core  of  the  administration :  the  law  descends  to  the 
most  minute  details;  the  same  enactment  prescribes  the  prin- 
ciple and  the  method  of  its  application,  and  thus  imposes  a  mul- 
titude of  strict  and  rigorously  defined  obligations  on  the  second- 
ary functionaries  of  the  State.  Tlie  consequence  of  this  is  that 
if  all  the  secondary  functionaries  of  the  administration  conform 
to  the  law,  society  in  all  its  branches  proceeds  with  the  greatest 
uniformity :  the  difficulty  remains  of  compelling  the  secondary 
functionaries  of  the  administration  to  conform  to  the  law.  It 
may  be  affirmed  that,  in  general,  society  has  only  two  methods 
of  enforcing  the  execution  of  the  laws  at  its  disposal:  a  dis- 
cretionary power  may  be  entrusted  to  a  superior  functionary  of 
directing  all  the  others,  and  of  cashiering  them  in  case  of  dis- 
obedience ;  or  the  courts  of  justice  may  be  authorized  to  inflict 
judicial  penalties  on  the  offender:  but  these  two  methods  are 
not  always  available. 

The  right  of  directing  a  civil  officer  presupposes  that  of 
cashiering  him  if  he  does  not  obey  orders,  and  of  rewarding 
him  by  promotion  if  he  fulfils  his  duties  with  propriety.  But  an 
elected  magistrate  can  neither  be  cashiered  nor  promoted.  All 
elective  functions  are  inalienable  until  their  term  is  expired.  In 
fact,  the  elected  magistrate  has  nothing  either  to  expect  or  to 
fear  from  his  constituents ;  and  when  all  public  offices  are  filled 
by  ballot  there  can  be  no  series  of  official  dignities,  because  the 
double  right  of  commanding  and  of  enforcing  obedience  can 
never  be  vested  in  the  same  individual,  and  because  the  power 
of  issuing  an  order  can  never  be  joined  to  that  of  inflicting  a 
punishment  or  bestowing  a  reward. 

The  communities  therefore  in  which  the  secondary  function- 
aries of  the  government  are  elected  are  perforce  obliged  to  make 
great  use  of  judicial  penalties  as  a  means  of  administration. 
This  is  not  evident  at  first  sight ;  for  those  in  power  are  apt  to 
look  upon  the  institution  of  elective  functionaries  as  one  con- 
cession, and  the  subjection  of  the  elected  magistrate  to  the 
judges  of  the  land  as  another.  They  are  equally  averse  to  both 
these  innovations ;  and  as  they  are  more  pressingly  solicited  to 
grant  the  former  than  the  latter,  they  accede  to  the  election  of 
the  magistrate,  and  leave  him  independent  of  the  judicial  power. 


tl 


i 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


73 


Nevertheless,  the  second  of  these  measures  is  the  only  thing  that 
can  possibly  counterbalance  the  first ;  and  it  will  be  found  that 
an  elective  authority  which  is  not  subject  to  judicial  power  wil!, 
sooner  or  later,  either  elude  all  control  or  be  destroyed.  The 
courts  of  justice  are  the  only  possible  medium  between  the  cen- 
tral power  and  the  administrative  bodies ;  they  alone  can  com- 
pel the  elected  functionary  to  obey,  without  violating  the  rights 
of  the  elector.  The  extension  of  judicial  power  in  the  political 
world  ought  therefore  to  be  in  the  exact  ratio  of  the  extension  of 
elective  offices :  if  these  two  institutions  do  not  go  hand  in  hand, 
the  State  must  fall  into  anarchy  or  into  subjection. 

It  has  always  been  remarked  that  habits  of  legal  business 
do  not  render  men  apt  to  the  exercise  of  administrative  author- 
ity. The  Americans  have  borrowed  from  the  English,  their 
fathers,  the  idea  of  an  institution  which  is  unknown  upon  the 
continent  of  Europe:  I  allude  to  that  of  the  Justices  of  the 
Peace.  The  Justice  of  the  Peace  is  a  sort  of  mezzo  termine  be- 
tween the  magistrate  and  the  man  of  the  world,  between  the  civil 
officer  and  the  judge.  A  justice  of  the  peace  is  a  well-informed 
citizen,  though  he  is  not  necessarily  versed  in  the  knowledge 
of  the  laws.  His  office  simply  obliges  him  to  execute  the  police 
regulations  of  society ;  a  task  in  which  good  sense  and  integrity 
are  of  more  avail  than  legal  science.  The  justice  introduces 
into  the  administration  a  certain  taste  for  established  forms  and 
publicity,  which  renders  him  a  most  unserviceable  instrument  of 
despotism ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  he  is  not  blinded  by  those 
superstitions  which  render  legal  officers  unfit  members  of  a 
government.  The  Americans  have  adopted  the  system  of  the 
English  justices  of  the  peace,  but  they  have  deprived  it  of  that 
aristocratic  character  which  is  discernible  in  the  mother-coun- 
try. Thfe  Governor  of  Massachusetts/"  appoints  a  certain  num- 
ber of  justices  of  the  peace  in  every  county,  whose  functions 
last  seven  years.9  He  further  designates  three  individuals  from 
amongst  the  whole  body  of  justices  who  form  in  each  county 
what  is  called  the  Court  of  Sessions.  The  justices  take  a  per- 
sonal share  in  public  business;  they  are  sometimes  entrusted 
with  administrative  functions  in  conjunction  with  elected  of- 
ficers/ they  sometimes  constitute  a  tribunal,  before  which  the 


^We    shall 
Governor   is 


hereafter    learn    what    a 
I    shall    content    myself 


with  remarking  in  this  place  that  he  rep- 
resents the  executive  power  of  the  whole 
State. 


<7  See  the  Constitution  of  Massachu- 
setts, chap.  II.  sect.  i.  5  g;  chap.  III. 
8  3- 

r  Thus,  for  example,  a  stranfrer  ar- 
rives   in    a    township    from    a    country 


\ 


74 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


i' 


^J 


f|l 


1 


i  ;1 


^' 


magistrates  summarily  prosecute  a  refractory  citizen,  or  the 
citizens  inform  against  the  abuses  of  the  magistrate.  But  it  is 
in  the  Court  of  Sessions  that  they  exercise  their  most  important 
functions.  This  court  meets  twice  a  year  in  the  county  town ; 
in  Massachusetts  it  is  empowered  to  enforce  the  obedience  of  the 
greater  number  s  of  public  officers.*  It  must  be  observed,  that  in 
the  State  of  Massachusetts  the  Court  of  Sessions  is  at  the  same 
time  an  administrative  body,  properly  so-called,  and  a  political 
tribunal.  It  has  been  asserted  that  the  county  is  a  purely  ad- 
ministrative division.  The  Court  of  Sessions  presides  over  that 
small  number  of  affairs  which,  as  they  concern  several  town- 
ships, or  all  the  townships  of  the  county  in  common,  cannot 
be  entrusted  to  any  one  of  them  in  particular."  In  all  that  con- 
cerns county  business  the  duties  of  the  Court  of  Sessions  are 
purely  administrative ;  and  if  in  its  investigations  it  occasionally 
borrows  the  forms  of  judicial  procedure,  it  is  only  with  a  view 
to  its  own  information.^  or  as  a  guarantee  to  the  community 
over  which  it  presides.  But  when  the  administration  of  the 
township  is  brought  before  it,  it  always  acts  as  a  judicial  body, 
and  in  some  few  cases  as  an  official  assembly. 

The  first  difficulty  is  to  procure  the  obedience  of  an  authority 
as  entirely  independent  of  the  general  laws  of  the  State  as  the 
township  is.  We  have  stated  that  assessors  are  annually  named 
by  the  town-meetings  to  levy  the  taxes.  If  a  township  attempts 
to  evade  the  payment  of  the  taxes  by  neglecting  to  name 
its  assessors,  the  Court  of  Sessions  condemns  it  to  a  heavy 
penalty .w  The  fine  is  levied  on  each  of  the  inhabitants;  and 
the  sheriff  of  the  county,  who  is  the  officer  of  justice,  executes 
the  mandate.  Thus  it  is  that  in  the  United  States  the  authority 
of  the  Government  is  mysteriously  concealed  under  the  forms 


where  a  contagious  disease  prevails,  and 
he  falls  ill.  Two  justices  of  the  peace 
can,  with  the  assent  of  the  selectmen, 
order  the  sheriff  of  the  county  to  remove 
and  take  care  of  him. — Act  of  June  22, 
1797,  vol.  i.  p.  540. 

In  general  the  justices  interfere  in 
all  the  important  acts  of  the  adminis- 
tration, and  give  them  a  semi-judicial 
character. 

J I  say  the  greater  number,  because 
certain  administrative  misdemeanors 
are  brought  before  ordinary  tribunals. 
If,  for  instance,  a  township  refuses  to 
make  the  necessary  expenditure  for  its 
schools  or  to  name  a  school-committee, 
it  is  liable  to  a  heavy  fine.  Rut  this 
penalty  is  pronounced  by  the  Supreme 
Judicial  Court  or  the  Court  of  Common 
Fleas.    See  Act  of  March  10,  1827,  Laws 


of  Massachusetts,  vol.  iii.  p.  190.  Or 
when  a  township  neglects  to  provide  the 
necessary  war-stores. — Act  of  February 
21,  1822  :  Id.,  vol.  ii.  p.  570. 

t  In  their  individual  capacity  the  jus- 
tices of  the  peace  take  a  part  in  the  bus- 
iness of  the  counties  and  townships. 

u  These  affairs  may  be  brought  under 
the  following  heads: — i.  The  erection  of 
prisons  and  courts  of  justice.  2.  The 
county  budget,  which  is  afterwards 
voted  by  the  State.  3.  The  distribution 
of  the  taxes  so  voted.  4.  Grants  of  cer- 
tain patents.  5.  The  laying  down  and 
repairs  of  the  country  roads. 

V  Thus,  when  a  road  is  under  consid- 
eration, almost  all  difficulties  are  dis- 
posed of  by  the  aid  of  the  jury. 

w  See  Act  of  February  20,  1786,  Laws 
of  Massachusetts,  vol.  i.  p.  217. 


/ 


.i 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


75 


of  a  judicial  sentence;  and  its  influence  is  at  the  same  time 
fortified  by  that  irresistible  power  with  which  men  have  invested 
the  formalities  of  law. 

These  proceedings  are  easy  to  follow  and  to  understand.  The 
demands  made  upon  a  township  are  in  general  plain  and  accu- 
rately defined ;  they  consist  in  a  simple  fact  without  any  com- 
plication, or  in  a  principle  without  its  application  in  detail.*" 
But  the  difficulty  increases  when  it  is  not  the  obedience  of  the 
township,  but  that  of  the  town  officers  which  is  to  be  enforced. 
All  the  reprehensible  actions  of  which  a  public  functionary  may 
be  guilty  are  reducible  to  the  following  heads : 

He  may  execute  the  law  without  energy  or  zeal ; 

He  may  neglect  to  execute  the  law; 

He  may  do  what  the  law  enjoins  him  not  to  do. 

The  last  two  violations  of  duty  can  alone  come  under  the 
cognizance  of  a  tribunal;  a  positive  and  appreciable  fact  is 
the  indispensable  foundation  of  an  action  at  law.  Thus,  if 
the  selectmen  omit  to  fulfil  the  legal  formalities  usual  at  town 
elections,  they  may  be  condemned  to  pay  a  fine ;  y  but  when  the 
public  officer  performs  his  duty  without  ability,  and  when  he 
obeys  the  letter  of  the  law  without  zeal  or  energy,  he  is  at  least 
beyond  the  reach  of  judicial  interference.  The  Court  of  Ses- 
sions, even  when  it  is  invested  with  its  official  powers,  is  in  this 
case  unable  to  compel  him  to  a  more  satisfactory  obedience. 
The  fear  of  removal  is  the  only  check  to  these  quasi-oflFences ; 
and  as  the  Court  of  Sessions  does  not  originate  the  town  author- 
ities, it  cannot  remove  functionaries  whom  it  does  not  appoint. 
Moreover,  a  perpetual  investigation  would  be  necessary  to  con- 
vict the  officer  of  negligence  or  lukewarmness ;  and  the  Court 
of  Sessions  sits  but  twice  a  year  and  then  only  judges  such 
offences  as  are  brought  before  its  notice.  The  only  security 
of  that  active  and  enlightened  obedience  which  a  court  of  jus- 
tice cannot  impose  upon  public  officers  lies  in  the  possibility  of 
their  arbitrary  removal.  In  France  this  security  is  sought  for 
in  powers  exercised  by  the  heads  of  the  administration;  in 
America  it  is  sought  for  in  the  principle  of  election. 

the  Court  of  Sessions,  he  is  sure  to  em- 
ploy the  extraordinary  right  which  the 
law 


*■  There  is  an  indirect  method  of  en- 
forcing the  obedience  of  a  township. 
Suppose  that  the  funds  which  the  law 
demands  for  the  maintenance  of  the 
roads  have  not  been  voted,  the  town  sur- 
veyor is  then  authorized,  ex  officio,  to 
levy  the  supplies.  As  he  is  personally 
responsible  to  private  individuals  for  the 
state  of  the  roads,  and  indictable  before 


law  gives  him  against  the  township. 
Thus  by  threatening  the  officer  the 
Court  of  Sessions  exacts  compliance 
from  the  town.  See  Act  of  March  5, 
1787.  Id.,  vol.  i.  p.  305-  .    .. 

y  Laws  of  Massachusetts,  vol.  it.  p.  45. 


li  I 


(' 


i 


H 


■'1  1>. 


i; 


76 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


Thus,  to  recapitulate  in  a  few  words  what  I  have  been  show- 
ing: If  a  pubHc  officer  in  New  England  commits  a  crime  in 
the  exercise  of  his  functions,  the  ordinary  courts  of  justice  arc 
always  called  upon  to  pass  sentence  upon  him.  If  he  commits 
a  fault  in  his  official  capacity,  a  purely  administrative  tribunal 
is  empowered  to  punish  him;  and,  if  the  aifair  is  important 
or  urgent,  the  judge  supplies  the  omission  of  the  functionary.^ 
Lastly,  if  the  same  individual  is  guilty  of  one  of  those  intangible 
offences  of  which  human  justice  has  no  cognizance,  he  annually 
appears  before  a  tribunal  from  which  there  is  no  appeal,  which 
can  at  once  reduce  him  to  insignificance  and  deprive  him  of  his 
charge.  This  system  undoubtedly  possesses  great  advantages, 
but  its  execution  is  attended  with  a  practical  difficulty  which  it 
is  important  to  point  out. 

I  have  already  observed  that  the  administrative  tribunal, 
which  is  called  the  Court  of  Sessions,  has  no  right  of  inspection 
over  the  town  officers.  It  can  only  interfere  when  the  conduct 
of  a  magistrate  is  specially  brought  under  its  notice ;  and  this 
is  the  delicate  part  of  the  system.  The  Americans  of  New 
England  are  unacquainted  with  the  office  of  public  prosecutor 
in  the  Court  of  Sessions,o  and  it  may  readily  be  perceived  that 
it  could  not  have  been  established  without  difficulty.  If  an 
accusing  magistrate  had  merely  been  appointed  in  the  chief 
town  of  each  county,  and  if  he  had  been  unassisted  by  agents 
in  the  townships,  he  would  not  have  been  better  acquainted  with 
what  was  going  on  in  the  county  than  the  members  of  the  Court 
of  Sessions.  But  to  appoint  agents  in  each  township  would 
have  been  to  centre  in  his  person  the  most  formidable  of  powers, 
that  of  a  judicial  administration.  Moreover,  laws  are  the  chil- 
dren of  habit,  and  nothing  of  the  kind  exists  in  the  legislation 
of  England.  The  Americans  have  therefore  divided  the  offices 
of  inspection  and  of  prosecution,  as  well  as  all  the  other  func- 
tions of  the  administration.  Grand  jurors  are  bound  by  the 
law  to  apprise  the  court  to  which  they  belong  of  all  the  mis- 
demeanors which  may  have  been  committed  in  their  county.^ 
There  are  certain  great  offences  which  are  officially  prosecuted 


s  If,  for  instance,  a  township  persists 
in  refusini;  to  name  its  assessors,  the 
Court  of  Sessions  nominates  them  ;  and 
the  magistrates  thus  appointed  are  in- 
vested with  the  same  authority  as  elected 
ofiicers.  See  the  Act  quoted  above, 
February  20,  1787. 

a  I  say  the  Court  of  Sessions,  because 


in  common  courts  there  is  a  maeistrate 
who  exercises  some  of  the  functions  of 
a  public  prosecutor. 

&The  grand-jurors  arc,  for  instance, 
bound  to  inform  the  court  of  the  bad 
state  of  the  roads. — Laws  of  Massachu- 
setts, vol.  i.  p.  308. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


77 


by  the  States ;  c  but  more  frequently  the  task  of  punishing  de- 
linquents devolves  upon  the  fiscal  officer,  whose  province  it  is 
to  receive  the  fine :  thus  the  treasurer  of  the  township  is  charged 
with  the  prosecution  of  such  administrative  otfences  as  fall 
under  his  notice.  But  a  more  special  appeal  is  made  by  Ameri- 
can legislation  to  the  private  interest  of  the  citizen ;  d  and  this 
great  principle  is  constantly  to  be  met  with  in  studying  the  laws 
of  the  United  States.  American  legislators  are  more  apt  to 
give  men  credit  for  intelligence  than  for  honesty,  and  they  rely 
not  a  little  on  personal  cupidity  for  the  execution  of  the  laws. 
When  an  individual  is  really  and  sensibly  injured  by  an  admin- 
istrative abuse,  it  is  natural  that  his  personal  interest  should 
induce  him  to  prosecute.  But  if  a  legal  formality  be  required, 
which,  however  advantageous  to  the  community,  is  of  small 
importance  to  individuals,  plaintiffs  may  be  less  easily  found; 
and  thus,  by  a  tacit  agreement,  the  laws  may  fall  into  disuse. 
Reduced  by  their  system  to  this  extremity,  the  Americans  are 
obliged  to  encourage  informers  by  bestowing  on  them  a  portion 
of  the  penalty  in  certain  cases,^  and  to  insure  the  execution 
of  the  laws  by  the  dangerous  expedient  of  degrading  the  morals 
of  the  people.  The  only  administrative  authority  above  the 
county  magistrates  is,  properly  speaking,  that  of  the  Govern- 
ment. 


V; 


1/ 


ince, 
bad 


General  Remarks   on   the   Administration  of  the 

United  States 

Differences  of  the  States  of  the  Union  in  their  system  of  administra- 
tion— Activity  and  perfection  of  the  local  authorities  decrease  to- 
wards the  South — Power  of  the  magistrate  increases ;  that  of  the  elec- 
tor diminishes — Administration  passes  from  the  township  to  the 
county — States  of  New  York,  Ohio,  Pennsylvania — Principles  of 
administration  applicable  to  the  whole  Union — Election  of  public 
officers,  and  inalienability  of  their  functions — Absence  of  gradation 
of  ranks — Introduction  of  judicial  resources  into  the  administration. 

I  have  already  premised  that,  after  having  examined  the 
constitution  of  the  township  and  the  county  of  New  England 


c  If,  for  instance,  the  treasurer  of  the 
county  holds  back  his  accounts. — Laws 
of  Massachusetts,  vol.  i.  p.  406. 

d  Thus,  if  a  private  individual  breaks 
down  or  is  wounded  in  consequence  of 
the  badness  of  a  road,  he  can  sue  the 
township  or  the  county  for  damages  at 
the  sessions. — Laws  of  Massachusetts, 
vol.  i.  p.  309. 

c  In  cases  of  invasion  or  insurrection, 
if  the  town-officers  neglect  to   furnish 


the  necessary  stores  and  ammunition  for 
the  militia,  the  township  may  be  con- 
demned to  a  fine  of  from  $200  to  $soo. 
It  may  readily  be  imagined  that  in  such 
a  case  it  might  happen  that  no  one  cared 
to  prosecute  ;  hence  the  law  adds  that 
all  the  citizens  mav  indict  offences  of 
this  kind,  and  that  half  of  the  fine  shall 
belong  to  the  plaintiff.  See  Act  of 
March  6,  1810,  vol.  ii.  p.  236.  The  same 
clause  is  frequently  to  be  met  with  in 


r  ir 


78 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


in  detail,  I  should  take  a  general  view  of  the  remainder  of  the 
Union.  Townships  and  a  local  activity  exist  in  every  State; 
but  in  no  part  of  the  confederation  is  a  township  to  be  met  with 
precisely  similar  to  those  of  New  England.  The  more  we  de- 
scend towards  the  South,  the  less  active  does  the  business  of 
the  township  or  parish  become ;  the  number  of  magistrates,  of 
functions,  and  of  rights  decreases;  the  population  exercises 
a  less  immediate  influence  on  affairs;  town  meetings  are  less 
frequent,  and  the  subjects  of  debate  less  numerous.  The  power 
of  the  elected  magistrate  is  augmented  and  that  of  the  elector 
diminished,  whilst  the  public  spirit  of  the  local  communities 
is  less  awakened  and  less  influential./^  These  differences  may 
be  perceived  to  a  certain  extent  in  the  State  of  New  York; 
they  are  very  sensible  in  Pennsylvania;  but  they  become  less 
striking  as  we  advance  to  the  northwest.  The  majority  of  the 
emigrants  who  settle  in  the  northwestern  States  are  natives 
of  New  England,  and  they  carry  the  habits  of  their  mother 
country  with  them  into  that  which  they  adopt.  A  township  in 
Ohio  is  by  no  means  dissimilar  from  a  township  in  Massachu- 
setts. 

We  have  seen  that  in  Massachusetts  the  mainspring  of  public 
administration  lies  in  the  township.  It  forms  the  common 
centre  of  the  interests  and  affections  of  the  citizens.  But  this 
ceases  to  be  the  case  as  we  descend  to  States  in  which  knowledge 
is  less  generally  diffused,  and  where  the  township  consequently 
offers  fewer  guarantees  of  a  wise  and  active  administration. 
As  we  leave  New  England,  therefore,  we  find  that  the  impor- 
tance of  the  town  is  gradually  transferred  to  the  county,  which 
becomes  the  centre  of  administration,  and  the  intermediate 
power  between  the  Government  and  the  citizen.  In  Massachu- 
setts the  business  of  the  county  is  conducted  by  the  Court  of 
Sessions,  which  is  composed  of  a  quorum  named  by  the  Gov- 
ernor and  his  council;   but  the  county  has  no  representative 

and     Privileges     of 


[}'\ 


the  law  of  Massachusetts.  Not  only  are 
private  individuals  thus  incited  to  prose- 
cute the  public  officers,  but  the  public 
officers  are  encouraged  in  the  same  man- 
ner to  bring  the  disobedience  of  private 
individuals  to  justice.  If  a  citizen  re- 
fuses to  perform  the  work  which  has 
been  assigned  to  him  upon  a  road,  the 
road  surveyor  may  prosecute  him,  and 
he  receives  half  the  penalty  for  himself. 
See  the  Laws  above  quoted,  vol.  i.  p. 
308. 

f  For  details  see  the  Revised  Statutes 
of  the  State  of  New  York,  part  i.  chap, 
xi.  vol.  i.  pp.  33<!-364i  entitled,  "  Of  the 


Powers,     Duties, 
Towns.'' 

See  in  the  Digest  of  the  Laws  of  Penn- 
sylvania, the  words  Assessors,  Collec- 
tor, Constables,  Overseer  of  the  Poor, 
Supervisors  of  Highways  ;  and  in  the 
Acts  of  a  general  nature  of  the  State 
of  Ohio,  the  Act  of  February  as,  jSm, 
relating  to  townships,  p.  412  ;  besides 
the  peculiar  dispositions  relating  to 
divers  town-officers,  such  as  Town- 
ship's Clerk,  Trustees,  Overseers  of  the 
Poor,  Fence  Viewers,  Appraisers  of 
Property.  Township's  Treasurer,  Con- 
stables, Supervisors  of  Highways. 


I    \ 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


t9 


assembly,  and  its  expenditure  is  voted  by  the  national  legis- 
lature. In  the  great  State  of  New  York,  on  the  contrary,  and 
in  those  of  Ohio  and  Pennsylvania,  the  inhabitants  of  each 
county  choose  a  certain  number  of  representatives,  who  con- 
stitute the  assembly  of  the  county .g  The  county  assembly  has 
the  right  of  taxing  the  inhabitants  to  a  certain  extent ;  and  in 
this  respect  it  enjoys  the  privileges  of  a  real  legislative  body : 
at  the  same  time  it  exercises  an  executive  power  in  the  county, 
frequently  directs  the  administration  of  the  townships,  and 
restricts  their  authority  within  much  narrower  bounds  than  in 
Massachusetts. 

Such  are  the  principal  differences  which  the  systems  of 
county  and  town  administration  present  in  the  Federal  States. 
Were  it  my  intention  to  examine  the  provisions  of  American 
law  minutely,  I  should  have  to  point  out  still  further  diflferences 
in  the  executive  details  of  the  several  conmiunities.  But  what 
I  have  already  said  may  suffice  to  show  the  general  principles 
on  which  the  administration  of  the  United  States  rests.  These 
principles  are  differently  applied ;  their  consequences  are  more 
or  less  numerous  in  various  localities ;  but  they  are  always  sub- 
stantially the  same.  The  laws  differ,  and  their  outward  feat- 
ures change,  but  their  character  does  not  vary.  If  the  township 
and  the  county  are  not  everywhere  constituted  in  the  same 
manner,  it  is  at  least  true  that  in  the  United  States  the  county 
and  the  township  are  always  based  upon  the  same  principle, 
namely,  that  everyone  is  the  best  judge  of  what  concerns  him-  ^ 
self  alone,  and  the  most  proper  person  to  supply  his  private 
wants.  The  township  and  the  county  are  therefore  bound  to 
take  care  of  their  special  interests:  the  State  governs,  but  it 
does  not  interfere  with  their  administration.  Exceptions  to 
this  rule  may  be  met  with,  but  not  a  contrary  principle. 

The  first  consequence  of  this  doctrine  has  been  to  cause  all 
the  magistrates  to  be  chosen  either  by  or  at  least  from  amongst 
the  citizens.  As  the  officers  are  everywhere  elected  or  ap- 
pointed for  a  certain  period,  it  has  been  impossible  to  establish 
the  rules  of  a  dependent  series  of  authorities ;  there  are  almost 
as  many  independent  functionaries  as  there  are  functions,  and 


g  See  the  Revised  Statutes  of  the 
State  of  New  York,  part  i.  chap.  xi.  vol. 
i.  p.  340.  Id.  chap.  xii.  p.  366;  also  in 
the  Acts  of  the  State  of  Ohio,  an  act  re- 
lating to  county  commissioners,  Febru- 
ary i§,   1824,   p.   263,     3i;e   the   Digest 


of  the  Laws  of  Pennsylvania,  at  the 
words  County-rates  and  Levies,  p.  170. 
In  the  State  of  New  York  each  town- 
ship elects  a  rei^resentative,  who  has  a 
share  in  the  administration  of  the  county 
M  VtM  as  in  that  of  the  township. 


^•i-' 


5i, 


M  (   . 

'  I'  '' 

'  i  ^ 

^  ill 


!   I 


i: 


^ 


,V^' 


:/^^ 


>.    iT 


.) 


V 


!^^ 


8e 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


the  executive  power  is  disseminated  in  a  multitude  of  hands. 
Hence  arose  the  indispensable  necessity  of  introducing  the  con- 
trol of  the  courts  of  justice  over  the  administration,  and  the 
system  of  pecuniary  penalties,  by  which  the  secondary  bodies 
and  their  representatives  are  constrained  to  obey  the  laws.  This 
system  obtains  from  one  end  of  the  Union  to  the  other.  The 
power  of  punishing  the  misconduct  of  public  officers,  or  of 
performing  the  part  of  the  executive  in  urgent  cases,  has  not, 
however,  been  bestowed  on  the  same  judges  in  all  the  States. 
The  Anglo-Americans  derived  the  institution  of  justices  of  the 
peace  from  a  common  source;  but  although  it  exists  in  all 
the  States,  it  is  not  always  turned  to  the  same  use.  The  jus- 
tices of  the  peace  everywhere  participate  in  the  administration 
of  the  townships  and  the  counties,/*  either  as  puWic  officers  or 
as  the  judges  of  public  misdemeanors,  but  in  most  of  the  States 
the  more  important  classes  of  public  offences  come  under  the 
cognizance  of  the  ordinary  tribunals. 

The  election  of  public  officers,  or  the  inalienability  of  their 
functions,  the  absence  of  a  gradation  of  powers,  and  the  intro- 
duction of  a  judicial  control  over  the  secondary  branches  of 
the  administration,  are  the  universal  characteristics  of  the 
American  system  from  Maine  to  the  Floridas.  In  some  States 
(and  that  of  New  York  has  advanced  most  in  this  direction) 
traces  of  a  centralized  administration  begin  to  be  discernible. 
In  the  State  of  New  York  the  officers  of  the  central  government 
exercise,  in  certain  cases,  a  sort  of  inspection  or  control  over 
the  secondary  bodies.* 

At  other  times  they  constitute  a  court  of  appeal  for  the  deci- 
sion of  affairs./    In  the  State  of  New  York  judicial  penalties 


h  In  some  of  the  Southern  States  the 
county  courts  are  charfjed  with  all  the 
details  of  the  administration.  See  the 
Statutes  of  the  State  of  Tennessee,  arts. 
Judiciary,  Taxes,  etc. 

t  For  instance,  the  direction  of  public 
instruction  centres  in  the  hands  of  the 
Government.  The  legislature  names  the 
members  of  the  University,  who  are  de- 
nominated Regents  ;  the  Governor  and 
Lieutentant-Governor  of  the  State  are 
necessarily  of  the  number.— Revised 
Statutes,  vol.  i.  p.  455.  The  Regents  of 
the  University  annually  visit  the  col- 
leges and  academies,  and  make  their  re- 
port to  the  1.-  -islature.  Their  superin- 
te'idence  is  i.ot  inefficient,  for  several 
.easons  :  the  colleges  in  order  to  be- 
come corporations  stand  in  need  of  a 
charter,  which  is  only  granted  on  the 
recommendation  of  the  Regents  ;  every 
year  funds  are  distributed  by  the  State 


for  the  encouragement  of  learning,  and 
the  Regents  are  the  distributors  of  this 
money.  Sec  chap.  xv.  "  Public  Instruc- 
tion,    Revised  Statutes,  vol.  i.  p.  4^5. 

The  school-commissioners  are  obliged 
to  send  an  annual  report  to  the  Superin- 
tendent of  the   Republic— /rf.   p.   488. 

A  similar  report  is  annually  made  to 
the  same  person  on  the  number  and 
condition  of  the  poor. — Id.  p.  631. 

/  If  any  one  conceives  himself  to  be 
wronged  by  the  school-commissioners 
(who  are  town-officers),  he  can  appeal 
to  the  superintendent  of  the  primary 
schools,  whose  decision  is  final.— Re- 
vised Statutes,  vol.  i.  p.  487. 

Provisions  similar  to  those  above 
cited  are  to  be  met  with  from  time 
to  time  in  the  laws  of  the  State  of  New 
York;  hut  in  general  these  attempts  at 
centralization  are  weak  and  unproduc- 
tive.   The  great  authorities  of  the  State 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


8x 


are  less  used  than  in  other  parts  as  a  means  of  administration, 
and  the  right  of  prosecuting  the  offences  of  public  officers  is 
vested  in  fewer  hands.*  The  same  tendency  is  faintly  observ- 
able in  some  other  States ; '  but  in  general  the  prominent  feat- 
ure of  the  administration  in  the  United  States  is  its  excessive 
local  independence. 

Of  THE  State 

I  have  described  the  townships  and  the  administration;  it 
now  remains  for  me  to  speak  of  the  State  and  the  Government. 
This  is  ground  I  may  pass  over  rapidly,  without  fear  of  being 
misunderstood;  for  all  I  have  to  say  is  to  be  found  in  written 
forms  of  the  various  constitutions,  which  are  easily  to  be  pro- 
cured. These  constitutions  rest  upon  a  simple  and  rational 
theory;  their  forms  have  been  adopted  by  all  constitutional 
nations,  and  are  become  familiar  to  us.  In  this  place,  therefore, 
it  is  only  necessary  for  me  to  give  a  short  analysis;  I  shall 
endeavor  afterwards  to  pass  judgment  upon  what  I  now  de- 
scribe. 

Legislative  Power  of  the  State 

Division  of  the  Legislative  Body  into  two  Houses — Senate — House  of 
Representatives — Different  functions  of  these  two  Bodies. 

The  legislative  power  of  the  State  is  vested  in  two  assemblies, 
the  first  of  which  generally  bears  the  name  of  the  Senate.  The 
Senate  is  commonly  a  legislative  body ;  but  it  sometimes  be- 
comes an  executive  and  judicial  one.  It  takes  a  part  in  the 
government  in  several  ways,  according  to  the  constitution  of 
the  different  States ;»»  but  it  is  in  the  nomination  of  public 
functionaries  that  it  most  commonly  assumes  an  executive 
power.  It  partakes  of  judicial  power  in  the  trial  of  certain  po- 
litical offences,  and  sometimes  also  in  the  decision  of  certain 
civil  cases."    The  number  of  its  members  is  always  small.    The 

k  Thus  the  district-attorney  is  directed 
to  recover  all  fines  below  the  sum  of 
fifty  dollars,  unless  such  a  riRht  has 
been  specially  awarded  to  another  mag- 
istmte.— Revised  Statutes,  vol.  i.  p.  383. 

I  Several  traces  of  centralization  may 
be  discovered  in  Massachusetts  ;  for  in- 
stance, the  committees  of  the  town- 
schools  are  directed  to  make  an  annual 
report  to  the  Secretary  of  State.  See 
Laws  of  Massachusetts,  vol.  i.  p.  367. 

in  In  Massachusetts  the  Senate  is  not 
invested  with  any  administrative  func- 
tions. 

»  As  in  the  State  of  New  York. 


have  the  right  of  watching  and  con- 
trolling the  subordinate  agents,  without 
that  of  rewarding  or  punishing  them. 
The  same  individual  is  never  empowered 
to  give  an  order  and  to  punish  diso- 
bedience ;  he  has  therefore  the  right 
of  commanding;,  without  the  means  of 
exacting  compliance.  In  1830  the  Super- 
intendent of  Schools  complained  in  his 
Annual  Report  addressed  to  the  legis- 
lature that  several  school-commissioners 
had  neglected,  notwithstanding  his  ap« 
plication,  to  furnish  him  with  the  ac- 
counts which  were  due.  He  added  that 
if  this  omission  continued  he  should 
be  obliged  to  prosecute  them,  as  the  law 
directs,  before  the  proper  tribunals. 

Vol.  I.— 6 


83 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


if 


f ' 


%  ; 


M' 


[. 


t     I- 


,   I 


':i 


other  branch  of  the  legislature,  which  is  usually  called  the 
House  of  Representatives,  has  no  share  whatever  in  the  ad- 
ministration, and  only  takes  a  part  in  the  judicial  power  inas- 
much as  it  impeaches  public  functionaries  before  the  Senate. 
The  members  of  the  two  Houses  are  nearly  everywhere  subject 
to  the  same  conditions  of  election.  They  are  chosen  in  the 
same  manner,  and  by  the  same  citizens.  The  only  difference 
which  exists  between  them  is,  that  the  term  for  which  the 
Senate  is  chosen  is  in  general  longer  than  that  of  the  House 
of  Representatives.  The  latter  seldom  remain  in  office  longer 
than  a  year;  the  former  usually  sit  two  or  three  years.  By 
granting  to  the  senators  the  privilege  of  being  chosen  for  sev- 
eral years,  and  being  renewed  seriatim,  the  law  takes  care  to 
preserve  in  the  legislative  body  a  nucleus  of  men  already  ac- 
customed to  public  business,  and  capable  of  exercising  a  salu- 
tary influence  upon  the  junior  members. 

The  Americans,  plainly,  did  not  desire,  by  this  separation  of 
the  legislative  body  into  two  branches,  to  make  one  house 
hereditary  and  the  other  elective ;  one  aristocratic  and  the  other 
democratic.  It  was  not  their  object  to  create  in  the  one  a  bul- 
wark to  power,  whilst  the  other  represented  the  interests  and 
passions  of  the  people.  The  only  advantages  which  result  from 
the  present  constitution  of  the  United  States  are  the  division  of 
the  legislative  power  and  the  consequent  check  upon  political 
assemblies ;  with  the  creation  of  a  tribunal  of  appeal  for  the 
revision  of  the  laws. 

Time  and  experience,  however,  have  convinced  the  Ameri- 
cans that  if  these  are  its  only  advantages,  the  division  of  the 
legislative  power  is  still  a  principle  of  the  greatest  necessity. 
Pennsylvania  was  the  only  one  of  the  United  States  which  at 
first  attempted  to  establish  a  single  House  of  Assembly,  and 
Franklin  himself  was  so  far  carried  away  by  the  necessary  con- 
sequences of  the  principle  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  as 
to  have  concurred  in  the  measure ;  but  the  Pennsylvanians  were 
soon  obliged  to  change  the  law,  and  to  create  two  Houses. 
Thus  the  principle  of  the  division  of  the  legislative  power  was 
finally  established,  and  its  necessity  may  henceforward  be  re- 
garded as  a  demonstrated  truth.  This  theory,  which  was  near- 
ly unknown  to  the  republics  of  antiquity — which  was  introduced 
into  the  world  almost  by  accident,  like  so  many  other  great 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


83 


truths — and  misunderstood  by  several  modern  nations,  is  at 
length  become  an  axiom  in  the  political  science  of  the  present 
age. 

The  Executive  Power  of  the  State 

Office  of  Governor  in  an  American  State — The  place  he  occupies  in  re- 
lation to  the  Legislature— His  rights  and  his  duties— His  depen- 
dence on  the  people. 

The  executive  power  of  the  State  may  with  truth  be  said  to 
be  represented  by  the  Governor,  although  he  enjoys  but  a  por- 
tion of  its  rights.  The  supreme  magistrate,  under  the  title  of 
Governor,  is  the  official  moderator  and  counsellor  of  the  legis- 
lature. He  is  armed  with  a  veto  or  suspensive  power,  which 
allows  him  to  stop,  or  at  least  to  retard,  its  movements  at  pleas- 
ure. He  lays  the  wants  of  the  country  before  the  legislative 
body,  and  points  out  the  means  which  he  thinks  may  be  usefully 
employed  in  providing  for  them ;  he  is  the  natural  executor  of 
its  decrees  in  all  the  undertakings  which  interest  the  nation  at 
large.o  In  the  absence  of  the  legislature,  the  Governor  is  bound 
to  take  all  necessary  steps  to  guard  the  State  against  violent 
shocks  and  unforeseen  dangers.  The  whole  military  power  of 
the  State  is  at  the  disposal  of  the  Governor.  He  is  the  com- 
mander of  the  militia,  and  head  of  the  armed  force.  When  the 
authority,  which  is  by  general  consent  awarded  to  the  laws,  is 
disregarded,  the  Governor  puts  himself  at  the  head  of  the 
armed  force  of  the  State,  to  quell  resistance,  and  to  restore  or- 
der. Lastly,  the  Governor  takes  no  share  in  the  administration 
of  townships  and  counties,  except  it  be  indirectly  in  the  nomina- 
tion of  Justices  of  the  Peace,  which  nomination  he  has  not  the 
power  to  cancel./'  The  Governor  is  an  elected  magistrate,  and 
is  generally  chosen  for  one  or  two  years  only ;  so  that  he  always 
continues  to  be  strictly  dependent  upon  the  majority  who  re- 
turned him. 


0  Practically  speaking,  it  is  not  always 
the  Governor  who  executes  the  plans 
of  the  Legislature  ;  it  often  happens 
that  the  latter,  in  voting  a  measure, 
names  special  agents  to  superintend  the 
execution  of  it. 


/ 


P  In  some  of  the  States  the  justices  of 
the  peace  are  not  elected  by  the  Gover- 
nor. 


DE  TOCQUliVILLE 


\  » 


I    I 


Political  Ekfkcts  oi-  the  System  of  Local  Administra- 
tion IN  TMK  United  States 

Necessary  distinction  between  the  general  centralization  of  Govern- 
ment and  the  centralization  of  the  local  administration — Local  ad- 
ministration not  centralized  in  the  United  States:  great  general 
centralization  of  the  Government — Some  bad  consequences  result- 
ing to  the  United  States  from  the  local  administration — Adminis- 
trative advantages  attending  this  order  of  things — The  power  which 
conducts  the  Government  is  less  regular,  less  enlightened,  less 
learned,  but  much  greater  than  in  Europe — Political  advantages  of 
this  order  of  things — In  the  United  States  the  interests  of  the  country 
are  everywhere  kept  in  view — Support  given  to  the  Government  by 
the  community — Provincial  institutions  more  necessary  in  propor- 
tion as  the  social  condition  becomes  more  democratic — Reason  of 
this. 

Centralization  is  become  a  word  of  general  and  daily  use, 
without  any  precise  meaning  being  attached  to  it.  Neverthe- 
less, there  exist  two  distinct  kinds  of  centralization,  which  it  is 
necessary  to  discriminate  with  accuracy.  Certain  interests  are 
connnon  to  all  parts  of  a  nation,  such  as  the  enactment  of  its 
general  laws  and  the  maintenance  of  its  foreign  relations. 
Other  interests  are  peculiar  to  certain  parts  of  the  nation ;  such, 
for  instance,  as  the  business  of  different  townships.  When  the 
power  which  directs  the  general  interests  is  centred  in  one 
place,  or  vested  in  the  same  persons,  it  constitutes  a  central 
government.  In  like  manner  the  power  of  directing  partial  or 
local  interests,  when  brought  together  into  one  place,  consti- 
tutes what  may  be  termed  a  central  administration. 

Upon  some  points  these  two  kinds  of  centralization  coalesce ; 
but  by  classifying  the  objects  which  fall  more  particularly  with- 
in the  province  of  each  of  them,  they  may  easily  be  distin- 
guished. It  is  evident  that  a  central  government  acquires  im- 
mense power  when  united  to  administrative  centralization. 
Thus  combined,  it  accustoms  men  to  set  their  own  will  habitu- 
ally and  completely  aside ;  to  submit,  not  only  for  once,  or  upon 
one  point,  but  in  every  respect,  and  at  all  times.  Not  only, 
therefore,  does  this  union  of  power  subdue  them  compulsorily, 
but  it  aflfects  them  in  the  ordinary  habits  of  life,  and  influences 
each  individual,  first  separately  and  then  collectively. 

These  two  kinds  of  centralization  mutually  assist  and  attract 
each  other ;  but  they  must  not  be  supposed  to  be  inseparable. 
It  is  impossible  to  imagine  a  more  completely  central  govern- 


DEMOCRACY   IN   AMF-RICA 


nient  than  that  which  existed  in  Franct-  under  Louis  XIV.; 
when  the  same  inchvifhial  was  the  author  and  the  interpreter 
of  the  laws,  and  the  representative  of  France  at  home  and 
abroad,  he  was  justified  in  ;isserting  that  the  State  was  identified 
with  his  person.  Nevertheless,  the  administration  was  much 
less  centralized  under  i    mis  XIV.  than  it  is  at  the  present  day. 

In  England  the  centralization  of  the  government  is  carried 
to  great  perfection ;  the  State  has  the  compact  vigor  nf  a  man, 
and  by  the  sole  act  of  its  will  it  puts  immense  engines  in  mo- 
tion, and  wields  or  collects  the  efforts  of  its  authority.  Indeed, 
I  cannot  conceive  that  a  nation  can  enjoy  a  secure  or  prosper- 
ous existence  without  a  powerful  centralization  of  government. 
But  I  am  of  opinion  that  a  central  administration  enervates  the 
nations  in  which  it  exists  by  incessantly  diminishing  their  pub- 
lic spirit.  If  such  an  administration  succeeds  in  condensing  at 
a  given  moment,  on  a  given  point,  all  the  disposable  resources 
of  a  people,  it  impairs  at  least  the  renewal  of  those  resources. 
It  may  ensure  a  victory  in  the  hour  of  strife,  but  it  gradually 
relaxes  the  sinews  of  strength.  It  may  contribute  admirably 
to  the  transient  greatness  of  a  man,  but  it  cannot  ensure  the 
durable  prosperity  of  a  nation. 

If  we  pay  proper  attention,  we  shall  find  that  whenever  it  is 
said  that  a  State  cannot  act  because  it  has  no  central  point,  it  is 
the  centralization  of  the  government  in  which  it  is  deficient. 
It  is  frequently  asserted,  and  we  are  prepared  to  assent  to  the 
proposition,  that  the  German  empire  was  never  able  to  bring 
all  its  powers  into  action.  But  the  reason  was,  that  the  State 
was  never  able  to  enforce  obedience  to  its  general  laws,  because 
the  several  members  of  that  great  body  always  claimed  the 
right,  or  found  the  means,  of  refusing  their  co-operation  to  the 
representatives  of  the  common  authority,  even  in  the  affairs 
which  concerned  the  mass  of  the  people ;  in  other  words,  be- 
cause there  was  no  centralization  of  government.  The  same 
remark  is  applicable  to  the  Middle  Ages ;  the  cause  of  all  the 
confusion  of  feudal  society  was  that  the  control,  not  only  of 
local  but  of  general  interests,  was  divided  amongst  a  thousand 
hands,  and  broken  up  in  a  thousand  different  ways;  the  ab- 
sence of  a  central  government  prevented  the  nations  of  Europe 
from  advancing  with  energy  in  any  straightforward  course. 

We  have  shown  that  in  the  United  States  no  central  admin- 
istration and  no  dependent  series  of  public  functionaries  exist. 


i  1 1' 


■      :    \ 


86 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


Local  authority  has  been  carried  to  lengths  which  no  European 
nation  could  endure  without  great  inconvenience,  and  which 
has  even  produced  some  disadvantageous  consequences  in 
America.  But  in  the  United  States  the  centralization  of  the 
Government  is  complete ;  and  it  would  be  easy  to  prove  that 
the  national  power  is  more  compact  than  it  has  ever  been  in 
the  old  nations  of  Europe.  Not  only  is  there  but  one  legis- 
lative body  in  each  State;  not  only  does  there  exist  but  one 
source  of  political  authority ;  but  district  assemblies  and  county 
courts  have  not  in  general  been  multiplied,  lest  they  should  be 
tempted  to  exceed  their  administrative  duties,  and  interfere 
with  the  Government.  In  America  the  legislature  of  each  State 
is  supreme;  nothing  can  impede  its  authority;  neither  priv- 
ileges, nor  local  immunities,  nor  personal  influence,  nor  even 
the  empire  of  reason,  since  it  represents  that  majority  which 
claims  to  be  the  sole  organ  of  reason.  Its  own  determination 
is,  therefore,  the  only  limit  to  this  action.  In  juxtaposition  to 
it,  and  under  its  immediate  control,  is  the  representative  of  the 
executive  power,  whose  duty  it  is  to  constrain  the  refractory 
to  submit  by  superior  force.  The  only  symptom  of  weakness 
lies  in  certain  details  of  the  action  of  the  Government.  The 
American  republics  have  no  standing  armies  to  intimidate  a  dis- 
contented minority ;  but  as  no  minority  has  as  yet  been  reduced 
to  declare  open  war,  the  necessity  of  an  army  has  not  been  felt.? 
The  State  usually  employs  the  officers  of  the  township  or  the 
county  to  deal  with  the  citizens.  Thus,  for  instance,  in  New 
England,  the  assessor  fixes  the  rate  of  taxes ;  the  collector  re- 
ceives them ;  the  town-treasurer  transmits  the  amount  to  the 
public  treasury ;  and  the  disputes  which  may  arise  are  brought 
before  the  ordinary  courts  of  justice.  This  method  of  collect- 
ing taxes  is  slow  as  well  as  inconvenient,  and  it  would  prove  a 
perpetual  hindrance  to  a  Government  whose  pecuniary  de- 
mands were  large.  It  is  desirable  that,  in  whatever  materially 
affects  its  existence,  the  Government  should  be  served  by  offi- 
•cers  of  its  own,  appointed  by  itself,  removable  at  pleasure,  and 
accustomed  to  rapid  methods  of  proceeding.  But  it  will  al- 
ways be  easy  for  the  central  government,  organized  as  it  is  in 


q  [The  Civil  War  of  1860-65  cruelly  be- 
lied this  statement,  and  in  the  course  of 
the  struggle  the  North  alone  called  two 
millions  and  a  half  of  men  to  arms;  but 
to  the  honor  of  the  United  States  it  must 


be  added  that,  wtththe  cessation  of  the 
contest,  this  army  disappeared  as  rapidly 
as  it  had  been  raised.— TVan^/atort 
Note.1 


:% 


/ 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


87 


America,  to  introduce  new  and  more  efficacious  modes  of  action, 
proportioned  to  its  wants. 

Tlie  absence  of  a  central  government  will  not,  then,  as  has 
often  been  asserted,  prove  the  destruction  of  the  republics  of 
the  New  World ;  far  from  supposing  that  the  American  govern- 
ments are  not  sufficiently  centralized,  I  shall  prove  hereafter 
that  they  are  too  much  so.  The  legislative  bodies  daily  en- 
croach upon  the  authority  of  the  Government,  and  their  ten- 
dency, like  that  of  the  French  Convention,  is  to  appropriate  it 
entirely  to  themselves.  Under  these  circumstances  the  social 
power  is  constantly  changing  hands,  because  it  is  subordinate 
to  the  power  of  the  people,  which  is  too  apt  to  forget  the  max-  . 
ims  of  wisdom  and  of  foresight  in  the  consciousness  of  its  / 
strength :  hence  arises  its  danger ;  and  thus  its  vigor,  and  not 
its  impotence,  will  probably  be  the  cause  of  its  ultimate  de- 
struction. 

The  system  of  local  administration  produces  several  different 
effects  in  America.  The  Americans  seem  to  me  to  have  out- 
stepped the  limits  of  sound  policy  in  isolating  the  administra- 
tion of  the  Government ;  for  order,  even  in  second-rate  affairs, 
is  a  matter  of  national  importance.*"  As  the  State  has  no  ad- 
ministrative functionaries  of  its  own,  stationed  on  different 
points  of  its  territory,  to  whom  it  can  give  a  common  impulse, 
the  consequence  is  that  it  rarely  attempts  to  issue  any  general 
police  regulations.  The  want  of  these  regulations  is  severely 
felt,  and  is  frequently  observed  by  Europeans.  The  appearance 
of  disorder  which  prevails  on  the  surface  leads  him  at  first  to 
imagine  that  society  is  in  a  state  of  anarchy ;  nor  does  he  per- 
ceive his  mistake  till  he  has  gone  deeper  into  the  subject.  Cer- 
tain undertakings  are  of  importance  to  the  whole  State;  but 
they  cannot  be  put  in  execution,  because  there  is  no  national  ^ 
administration  to  direct  them.  Abandoned  to  the  exertions  of 
the  towns  or  counties,  under  the  care  of  elected  or  temporary 
agents,  they  lead  to  no  result,  or  at  least  to  no  durable  benefit. 

The  partisans  of  centralization  in  Europe  are  wont  to  main- 


rThe  authority  which  represents  the 
State  ought  not,  I  think,  to  waive  the 
right  of  inspecting  the  local  administra- 
tion, even  when  it  does  not  interfere 
more  actively.  Suppose,  for  instance, 
that  an  agent  of  the  Government  was 
stationed  at  some  appointed  spot  in  the 
country,  to  prosecute  the  misdemeanors 
of  the  town  and  county  officers,  would 


not  a  more  uniform  order  be  the  result, 
without  in  any  way  compromising  the 
independence  of  the  township?  Nothing 
of  the  kind,  however,  exists  in  America  : 
there  is  nothing  above  the  county- 
courts,  v/hich  have,  as  it  were,  only  an 
incidental  cognizance  of  the  offences 
they  are  meant  to  repress. 


IV  . 


H    •  M 


J 


88 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


tain  that  the  Government  directs  the  affairs  of  each  locality 
better  than  the  citizens  could  do  it  for  themselves ;  this  may 
be  true  when  the  central  power  is  enlightened,  and  when  the 
local  districts  are  ignorant ;  when  it  is  as  alert  as  they  are  slow ; 
when  it  is  accustomed  to  act,  and  they  to  obey.  Indeed,  it 
is  evident  that  this  double  tendency  must  augment  with  the 
increase  of  centralization,  and  that  the  readiness  of  the  one  and 
the  incapacity  of  the  others  must  become  more  and  more  prom- 
inent. But  I  deny  that  such  is  the  case  when  the  people  is  as 
enlightened,  as  awake  to  its  interests,  and  as  accustomed  to  re- 
flect on  them,  as  the  Americans  are.  I  am  persuaded,  on  the 
contrary,  that  in  this  case  the  collective  strength  of  the  citi- 
zens will  always  conduce  more  efficaciously  to  the  public  wel- 
fare than  the  authority  of  the  Government,  It  is  difficult  to 
point  out  with  certainty  the  means  of  arousing  a  sleeping  popu- 
lation, and  of  giving  it  passions  and  knowledge  which  it  does 
not  possess ;  it  is,  I  am  well  aware,  an  arduous  task  to  persuade 
men  to  busy  themselves  about  their  own  affairs ;  and  it  would 
frequently  be  easier  to  interest  them  in  the  punctilios  of  court 
etiquette  than  in  the  repairs  of  their  common  dwelling.  But 
whenever  a  central  administration  affects  to  supersede  the  per- 
sons most  interested,  I  am  inclined  to  suppose  that  it  is  either 
misled  or  desirous  to  mislead.  However  enlightened  and  how- 
ever skilful  a  central  power  may  be,  it  cannot  of  itself  embrace 
all  the  details  of  the  existence  of  a  great  nation.  Such  vig- 
ilance exceeds  the  powers  of  man.  And  when  it  attempts  to 
create  and  set  in  motion  so  many  complicated  springs,  it  must 
submit  to  a  very  imperfect  result,  or  consume  itself  in  bootless 
efforts. 

Centralization  succeeds  more  easily,  indeed,  in  subjecting  the 
external  actions  of  men  to  a  certain  uniformity,  which  at  least 
commands  our  regard,  independently  of  the  objects  to  which 
it  is  applied,  like  those  devotees  who  worship  the  statue  and 
forget  the  deity  it  represents.  Centralization  imparts  without 
difficulty  an  admirable  regularity  to  the  routine  of  business; 
provides  for  the  details  of  the  social  police  with  sagacity ;  re- 
presses the  smallest  disorder  and  the  most  petty  misdemean- 
ors ;  maintains  society  in  a  status  quo  alike  secure  from  improve- 
ment and  decline ;  and  perpetuates  a  drowsy  precision  in  the 
conduct  of  affairs,  which  is  hailed  by  the  heads  of  the  adminis- 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


89 


tration  as  a  sign  of  perfect  order  and  public  tranquillity :  s  in 
short,  it  excels  more  in  prevention  than  in  action.  Its  force  de- 
serts it  when  society  is  to  be  disturbed  or  accelerated  in  its 
course ;  and  if  once  the  co-operation  of  private  citizens  is  neces- 
sary to  the  furtherance  of  its  measures,  the  secret  of  its  impo- 
tence is  disclosed.  Even  whilst  it  invokes  their  assistance,  it  is 
on  the  condition  that  they  shall  act  exactly  as  much  as  the 
Government  chooses,  and  exactly  in  the  manner  it  appoints. 
They  are  to  take  charge  of  the  details,  without  aspiring  to  guide 
the  system  ;  they  are  to  work  in  a  dark  and  subordinate  sphere, 
and  only  to  judge  the  acts  in  which  they  have  themselves  co- 
operated by  their  results.  These,  however,  are  not  conditions 
on  which  the  alliance  of  the  human  will  is  to  be  obtained ;  its 
carriage  must  be  free  and  its  actions  responsible,  or  (such  is  the 
constitution  of  man)  the  citizen  had  rather  remain  a  passive 
spectator  than  a  dependent  actor  in  schemes  with  which  he  is 
unacquainted. 

It  is  undeniable  that  the  want  of  those  uniform  regulations 
which  control  the  conduct  of  every  inhabitant  of  France  is  not 
unfrequently  felt  in  the  United  States.  Gross  instances  of  so- 
cial indifference  and  neglect  are  to  be  met  with,  and  from  time 
to  time  disgraceful  blemishes  are  seen  in  complete  contrast 
with  the  surrounding  civilization.  Useful  undertakings  which 
cannot  succeed  without  perpetual  attention  and  rigorous  ex- 
actitude are  very  frequently  abandoned  in  the  end ;  for  in  Amer- 
ica, as  well  as  in  other  countries,  the  people  is  subject  to  sud- 
den impulses  and  momentary  exertions.  The  European  who 
is  accustomed  to  find  a  functionary  always  at  hand  to  interfere 
with  all  he  undertakes  has  some  difficulty  in  accustoming  him- 
self to  the  complex  mechanism  of  the  administration  of  the 
townships.  In  general  it  may  be  affirmed  that  the  lesser  de- 
tails of  the  police,  which  render  life  easy  and  comfortable,  are 
neglected  in  America ;  but  that  the  essential  guarantees  of  man 
in  society  are  as  strong  there  as  elsewhere.  In  America  the 
power  which  conducts  the  Government  is  far  less  regular,  less 
enlightened,  and  less  learned,  but  an  hundredfold  more  au- 


«  China  appears  to  me  to  present  the 
most  perfect  instance  of  that  species 
nf  \vellbein(»  which  a  completely  central 
administration  may  furnish  to  the  na- 
tions amonR  which  it  exists.  Travellers 
assure  us  that  the  Chinese  have  peace 
without  happiness,  industry  without  im- 
provement,   stability   witliout    strength, 


and  public  order  without  public  moral- 
ity. The  condition  of  society  is  always 
tolerable,  never  excellent,  I  am  con- 
vinced that,  when  China  is  opened  to 
European  observation,  it  will  be  found 
to  contain  the  most  perfect  model  of  a 
central  administration  which  exists  in 
the  universe. 


/ 


:\ 


90 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


m " 


■i> .  1 


/' 


thoritative  than  in  Europe.  In  no  country  in  the  world  do  the 
citizens  make  such  exertions  for  the  common  weal ;  and  I  am 
acquainted  with  no  people  which  has  established  schools  as 
numerous  and  as  efficacious,  places  of  public  worship  better 
suited  to  the  wants  of  the  inhabitants,  or  roads  kept  in  better 
repair.  Uniformity  or  permanence  of  design,  the  minute  ar- 
rangement of  details,*  and  the  perfection  of  an  ingenious  ad- 
ministration, must  not  be  sought  for  in  the  United  States ;  but 
it  will  be  easy  to  find,  on  the  other  hand,  the  symptoms  of  a 
power  which,  if  it  is  somewhat  barbarous,  is  at  least  robust ; 
and  of  an  existence  which  is  checkered  with  accidents  indeed, 
but  cheered  at  the  same  time  by  animation  and  effort. 

Granting  for  an  instant  that  the  villages  and  counties  of  the 
United  States  would  be  more  usefully  governed  by  a  remote 
authority  which  they  had  never  seen  than  by  functionaries 
taken  from  the  midst  of  them — admitting,  for  the  sake  of  argu- 
ment, that  the  country  would  be  more  secure,  and  the  resources 
of  society  better  employed,  if  the  whole  administration  centred 
in  a  single  arm — still  the  political  advantages  which  the  Amer- 
icans derive  from  their  system  would  induce  me  to  prefer  it  to 
the  contrary  plan.  It  profits  me  but  little,  after  all,  that  a 
vigilant  authority  should  protect  the  tranquillity  of  my  pleas- 
ures and  constantly  avert  all  dangers  from  my  path,  without 
my  care  or  my  concern,  if  this  same  authority  is  the  absolute 
mistress  of  my  liberty  and  of  i.iy  life,  and  if  it  so  monopolizes 
all  the  energy  of  existence  that  when  it  languishes  everything 
languishes  around  it,  that  when  it  sleeps  everything  must  sleep, 
that  when  it  dies  the  State  itself  must  perish. 


[  '\ 


*  A  writer  of  talent,  who,  in  the  com- 
parison which  he  has  drawn  between 
the  finances  of  France  and  those  of  the 
United  States,  has  proved  that  ingenuity 
cannot  always  supply  the  place  of  a 
knowledge  of  facts,  very  justly  re- 
proaches the  Americans  for  the  sort 
of  confusion  which  exists  in  the  ac- 
counts of  the  expenditure  in  the  town- 
ships; and  after  giving  the  model  of 
a  departmental  budget  in  France,  he 
adds: — "We  are  indebted  to  centrali- 
zation, that  admirable  invention  of  a 
great  man,  for  the  uniform  order  and 
method  which  prevail  alike  in  all  the 
municipal  budgets,  from  the  largest 
town  to  the  humblest  commune."  What- 
ever may  be  my  admiration  of  this 
result,  when  I  see  the  communes  of 
France,  with  their  excellent  system  of 
accounts,  plunged  into  the  grossest 
ignorance  of  their  true  interests,  and 
abandoned  to  so  incorrigible  an  apathy 


that  they  seem  to  vegetate  rather  than 
to  live;  when,  on  the  other  hand,  I 
observe  the  activity,  the  information, 
and  the  spirit  of  enterprise  which  keep 
society  in  perpetual  labor,  in  those  Am- 
erican townships  whose  budgets  are 
drawn  up  with  small  method  and  with 
still  less  uniformity,  I  am  struck  by  the 
spectacle;  for  to  my  mind  the  end  of  a 
good  government  is  to  ensure  the  wel- 
fare of  a  people,  and  not  to  establish 
order  and  regularity  in  the  midst  of  its 
misery  and  its  distress.  I  am  therefore 
led  to  suppose  that  the  prosperity  of 
the  American  townships  and  the  ap- 
parent confusion  of  their  accounts,  the 
distress  of  the  French  communes  and 
the  perfection  of  their  budget,  may  be 
attributable  to  the  same  cause.  At  any 
rate  I  am  suspicious  of  a  benefit  which 
is  united  to  so  many  evils,  and  I  am 
not  averse  to  an  evil  which  is  compen- 
sated by  so  many  benefits. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


9» 


i 


t 


In  certain  countries  of  Europe  the  natives  consider  them- 
selves as  a  kind  of  settlers,  indifferent  to  the  fate  of  the  spot 
upon  which  they  live.  The  greatest  changes  are  effected  with- 
out their  concurrence  and  (unless  chance  may  have  apprised 
them  of  the  event)  without  their  knowledge;  nay  more,  the 
citizen  is  unconcerned  as  to  the  condition  of  his  village,  the 
police  of  his  street,  the  repairs  of  the  church  or  of  the  par- 
sonage ;  for  he  looks  upon  all  these  things  as  unconnected  with 
himself,  and  as  the  property  of  a  powerful  stranger  whom  he 
calls  the  Government.  He  has  only  a  life-interest  in  these  pos- 
sessions, and  he  entertains  no  notions  of  ownership  or  of  im- 
provement. This  want  of  interest  in  his  own  affairs  goes  so  far 
that,  if  his  own  safety  or  that  of  his  children  is  endangered,  in- 
stead of  trying  to  avert  the  peril,  he  will  fold  his  arms,  and  wait 
till  the  nation  comes  to  his  assistance.  This  same  individual, 
who  has  so  completely  sacrificed  his  own  free  will,  has  no  nat- 
ural propensity  to  obedience ;  he  cowers,  it  is  true,  before  the 
pettiest  officer ;  but  he  braves  the  law  with  the  spirit  of  a  con- 
quered foe  as  soon  as  its  superior  force  is  removed :  his  oscilla- 
tions between  servitude  and  license  are  perpetual.  When  a 
nation  has  arrived  at  this  state  it  must  either  change  its  customs 
and  its  laws  or  perish :  the  source  of  public  virtue  is  dry,  and, 
though  it  may  contain  subjects,  the  race  of  citizens  is  extinct. 
Such  communities  are  a  natural  prey  to  foreign  conquests,  and 
if  they  do  not  disappear  from  the  scene  of  life,  it  is  because  they 
are  surrounded  by  other  nations  similar  or  inferior  to  them- 
selves: it  is  because  the  instinctive  feeling  of  their  country's 
claims  still  exists  in  their  hearts ;  and  because  an  involuntary 
pride  in  the  name  it  bears,  or  a  vague  reminiscence  of  its  bygone 
fame,  suffices  to  give  them  the  impulse  of  self-preservation. 

Nor  can  the  prodigious  exertions  made  by  tribes  in  the  de- 
fence of  a  country  to  which  they  did  not  belong  be  adduced  in 
favor  of  such  a  system ;  for  it  will  be  found  that  in  these  cases 
their  main  incitement  was  religion.  The  permanence,  the 
glory,  or  the  prosperity  of  the  nation  were  become  parts  of  their 
faith,  and  in  defending  the  country  they  inhabited  they  defend- 
ed that  Holy  City  of  which  they  were  all  citizens.  The  Turkish 
tribes  have  never  taken  an  active  share  in  the  conduct  of  the 
affairs  of  society,  but  they  accomplished  stupendous  enterprises 
as  long  as  the  victories  of  the  Sultan  were  the  triumphs  of  the 
Mohammedan  faith.    In  the  present  age  they  are  in  rapid  de- 


1-' 

I 

t't 


92 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


I  ■■  u 


1\\ 


cay,  because  their  religion  is  departing,  and  despotism  only 
remains.  Montesquieu,  who  attributed  to  absolute  power  an 
authority  peculiar  to  itself,  did  it,  as  I  conceive,  an  undeserved 
honor ;  for  despotism,  taken  by  itself,  can  produce  no  durable 
results.  On  close  inspection  we  shall  find  that  religion,  and 
not  fear,  has  ever  been  the  cause  of  the  long-lived  prosperity 
of  an  absolute  government.  Whatever  exertions  may  be  made, 
no  true  power  can  be  founded  among  men  which  does  not  de- 
pend upon  the  free  union  of  their  inclinations ;  and  patriotism 
and  religion  are  the  only  two  motives  in  the  world  which  can 
permanently  direct  the  whole  of  a  body  politic  to  one  end. 

Laws  cannot  succeed  in  rekindling  the  ardor  of  an  extin- 
guished faith,  but  men  may  be  interested  in  the  fate  of  their 
country  by  the  laws.  By  this  influence  the  vague  impulse  of 
patriotism,  which  never  abandons  the  human  heart,  may  be 
directed  and  revived ;  and  if  it  be  connected  with  the  thoughts, 
the  passions,  and  the  daily  habits  of  life,  it  may  be  consolidated 
into  a  durable  and  rational  sentiment. 

Let  it  not  be  said  that  the  time  for  the  experiment  is  already 
past ;  for  the  old  age  of  nations  is  not  like  the  old  age  of  men, 
and  every  fresh  generation  is  a  new  people  ready  for  the  care  of 
the  legislator. 

It  is  not  the  administrative  but  the  political  eflfects  of  the 
local  system  that  I  most  admire  in  America.  In  the  United 
States  the  interests  of  the  country  are  everywhere  kept  in  view ; 
they  are  an  object  of  solicitude  to  the  people  of  the  whole  Un- 
ion, and  every  citizen  is  as  warmly  attached  to  them  as  if  they 
were  his  own.  He  takes  pride  in  the  glory  of  his  nation ;  he 
boasts  of  its  success,  to  which  he  conceives  himself  to  have 
contributed,  and  he  rejoices  in  the  general  prosperity  by  which 
he  profits.  The  feeling  he  entertains  towards  the  State  is  an- 
alogous to  that  which  unites  him  to  his  family,  and  it  is  by  a 
kind  of  egotism  that  he  interests  himself  in  the  welfare  of  his 
country. 

The  European  generally  submits  to  a  public  officer  because 
he  represents  a  superior  force ;  but  to  an  American  he  represents 
a  right.  In  America  it  may  be  said  that  no  one  renders  obedi- 
ence to  man,  hut  to  justice  and  to  law.  If  the  opinion  which 
the  citizen  entertains  of  himself  is  exaggerated,  it  is  at  least 
salutary ;  he  unhesitatingly  confides  in  his  own  powers,  which 
appear  to  him  to  be  all-sufficient.    When  a  private  iruivi.iual 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


93 


meditates  an  undertaking,  however  directly  connected  it  may 
be  with  the  welfare  of  society,  he  never  thinks  of  soliciting  the 
co-operation  of  the  Government,  but  he  publishes  his  plan,  of- 
fers to  execute  it  himself,  courts  the  assistance  of  other  indi- 
viduals, and  struggles  manfully  against  all  obstacles.  Un- 
doubtedly he  is  often  less  successful  than  the  State  might  have 
been  in  his  position ;  but  in  the  end  the  sum  of  these  private 
undertakings  far  exceeds  all  that  the  Government  could  have 
done. 

As  the  administrative  authority  is  within  the  reach  of  the 
citizens,  whom  it  in  some  degree  represents,  it  excites  neither 
their  jealousy  nor  their  hatred;  as  its  resources  are  limited, 
every  one  feels  that  he  must  not  rely  solely  on  its  assistance. 
Thus,  when  the  administration  thinks  fit  to  interfere,  it  is  not 
abandoned  to  itself  as  in  Europe ;  the  duties  of  the  private  citi- 
zens are  not  supposed  to  have  lapsed  because  the  State  assists 
in  their  fulfilment,  but  every  one  is  ready,  on  the  contrary,  to 
guide  and  to  support  it.  This  action  of  individual  exertions, 
joined  to  that  of  the  public  authorities,  frequently  performs  what 
the  most  energetic  central  administration  would  be  unable  to 
execute.  It  would  be  easy  to  adduce  several  facts  in  proof  of 
what  I  advance,  but  I  had  rather  give  only  one,  with  which  I 
am  more  thoroughly  acquainted."  In  America  the  means 
which  the  authorities  have  at  their  disposal  for  the  discovery  of 
crimes  and  the  arrest  of  criminals  are  few.  The  State  police 
does  not  exist,  and  passports  are  unknown.  The  criminal  po- 
lice of  the  United  States  cannot  be  compared  to  that  of  France ; 
the  magistrates  and  public  prosecutors  are  not  numerous,  and 
the  examinations  of  prisoners  are  rapid  and  oral.  Neverthe- 
less in  no  country  does  crime  more  rarely  elude  punishment. 
The  reason  is,  that  every  one  conceives  himself  to  be  inter- 
ested in  furnishing  evidence  of  the  act  committed,  and  in  stop- 
ping the  delinquent.  During  my  stay  in  the  United  States 
I  witnessed  the  spontaneous  formation  of  committees  for  the 
pursuit  and  prosecution  of  a  man  who  had  committed  a  great 
crime  in  a  certain  county.  In  Europe  a  criminal  is  an  unhappy 
being  who  is  struggling  for  his  life  against  the  ministers  of 
justice,  whilst  the  population  is  merely  a  spectator  of  the  con- 
flict ;  in  America  he  is  looked  upon  as  an  enemy  of  the  human 
race,  and  the  whole  of  mankind  is  against  him. 

w  See  Appendix,  I. 


94 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


n:  !■ 


;( 


I  believe  that  provincial  institutions  are  useful  to  all  nations, 
but  nowhere  do  they  appear  to  me  to  be  more  indispensable 
than  amongst  a  democratic  people.  In  an  aristocracy  order 
can  always  be  maintained  in  the  midst  of  liberty,  and  as  the 
rulers  have  a  great  deal  to  lose  order  is  to  them  a  first-rate 
consideration.  In  like  manner  an  aristocracy  protects  the  peo- 
ple from  the  excesses  of  despotism,  because  it  always  possesses 
an  organized  power  ready  to  resist  a  despot.  But  a  democ- 
racy without  provincial  institutions  has  no  security  against 
these  evils.  How  can  a  populace,  unaccustomed  to  freedom 
in  small  concerns,  learn  to  use  it  temperately  in  great  affairs  ? 
What  resistance  can  be  offered  to  tyranny  in  a  country  where 
every  private  individual  is  impotent,  and  where  the  citizens  are 
united  by  no  common  tie?  Those  who  dread  the  license  of 
the  mob,  and  those  who  fear  the  rule  of  absolute  power,  ought 
alike  to  desire  the  progressive  growth  of  provincial  liberties. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  am  convinced  that  democratic  nations 
are  most  exposed  to  fall  beneath  the  yoke  of  a  central  adminis- 
tration, for  several  reasons,  amongst  which  is  the  following. 
The  constant  tendency  of  these  nations  is  to  concentrate  all 
the  strength  of  the  Government  in  the  hands  of  the  only  power 
which  directly  represents  the  people,  because  beyond  the  peo- 
ple nothing  is  to  be  perceived  but  a  mass  of  equal  individuals 
confounded  together.  But  when  the  same  power  is  already  in 
possession  of  all  the  attributes  of  the  Government,  it  can  scarce- 
ly refrain  from  penetrating  into  the  details  of  the  administra- 
tion, and  an  opportunity  of  doing  so  is  sure  to  present  itself  in 
the  end,  as  was  the  case  in  France.  In  the  French  Revolution 
there  were  two  impulses  in  opposite  directions,  which  must 
never  be  confounded — the  one  was  favorable  to  liberty,  the 
other  to  despotism.  Under  the  ancient  monarchy  the  King 
was  the  sole  author  of  the  laws,  and  below  the  power  of  the 
sovereign  certain  vestiges  of  provincial  institutions,  half  de- 
stroyed, were  still  distinguishable.  These  provincial  institu- 
tions were  incoherent,  ill  compacted,  and  frequently  absurd ;  in 
the  hands  of  the  aristocracy  they  had  sometimes  been  convert- 
ed into  instruments  of  oppression.  The  Revolution  declared 
itself  the  enemy  of  royalty  and  of  provincial  institutions  at  the 
same  time;  it  confounded  all  that  had  preceded  it — despotic 
power  and  the  checks  to  its  abuses — in  indiscriminate  hatred, 
and  its  tendency  was  at  once  to  overthrow  and  to  centralize. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


98 


This  double  character  of  the  French  Revolution  is  a  fact  which 
has  been  adroitly  handled  by  the  friends  of  absolute  power. 
Can  they  be  accused  of  laboring  in  the  cause  of  d'  •  <otism 
when  they  are  defending  that  central  administration  wi.  .1  was 
one  of  the  great  innovations  of  the  Revolution  ?f  In  this 
manner  popularity  may  be  conciliated  with  hostility  to  the 
rights  of  the  people,  and  the  secret  slave  of  tyranny  may  be  the 
professed  admirer  of  freedom. 

I  have  visited  the  two  nations  in  which  the  system  of  pro- 
vincial liberty  has  been  most  perfectly  established,  and  I  have 
listened  to  the  opinions  of  different  parties  in  those  countries. 
In  America  I  met  with  men  who  secretly  aspired  to  destroy 
the  democratic  institutions  of  the  Union ;  in  England  I  found 
others  who  attacked  the  aristocracy  openly,  but  I  know  of  no 
one  who  does  not  regard  provincial  independence  as  a  great 
benefit.  In  both  countries  I  have  heard  a  thousand  different 
causes  assigned  for  the  evils  of  the  State,  but  the  local  system 
was  never  mentioned  amongst  them.  I  have  heard  citizens 
attribute  the  power  and  prosperity  of  their  country  to  a  multi- 
tude of  reasons,  but  they  all  placed  the  advantages  of  local  in- 
stitutions in  the  foremost  rank.  Am  I  to  suppose  that  when 
men  who  are  naturally  so  divided  on  religious  opinions  and  on 
political  theories  agree  on  one  point  (and  that  one  of  which  they 
have  daily  experience),  they  are  all  in  error  ?  The  only  nations 
which  deny  the  utility  of  provincial  liberties  are  those  which 
have  fewest  of  them ;  in  other  words,  those  who  are  unacquaint- 
ed with  the  institution  are  the  only  persons  who  pass  a  censure 
upon  it. 

vSee  Appendix    K 


J!ii;;jaL 


,1 


y   { 


CHAPTER  VI 

JUDICIAL  POWER  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES  AND  ITS  IN- 
FLUENCE ON  POLITICAL  SOCIETY 

The  Anglo-Americanb  have  retained  the  characteristics  of  judicial 
power  which  are  common  to  all  nations — They  have,  however,  made 
it  a  powerful  political  organ — How — In  what  the  judicial  system  of 
the  Anglo-Americans  differs  from  that  of  all  other  nations — Why  the 
American  judges  have  the  right  of  declaring  the  laws  to  be  uncon- 
stitutional—How they  use  this  right — Precautions  taken  by  the 
legislator  to  prevejit  its  abuse. 

I  HAVE  thought  it  essential  to  devote  a  separate  chapter  to 
the  judicial  authorities  of  the  United  States,  lest  their 
great  political  importance  should  be  lessened  in  the  read- 
er's eyes  by  a  merely  incidental  mention  of  them.  Confedera- 
tions have  existed  in  other  countries  beside  America,  and  re- 
publics have  not  been  established  upon  the  shores  of  the  New 
World  alone;  the  representative  system  of  government  has 
been  adopted  in  several  States  of  Europe,  but  I  am  not  aware 
that  any  nation  of  the  globe  has  hitherto  organized  a  judicial 
power  on  the  principle  now  adopted  by  the  ^\inencans.  The 
judicial  organization  of  the  United  States  is  the  institution 
which  a  stranger  has  the  greatest  difficulty  in  understanding. 
He  hears  the  authority  of  a  judge  invoked  in  the  political  oc- 
currences of  every  day,  and  he  naturally  concludes  that  in  the 
United  States  the  judges  are  important  political  functionaries ; 
nevertheless,  when  he  examines  the  nature  of  the  tribunals,  they 
offer  nothing  which  is  contrary  to  the  usual  habits  and  priv- 
ileges of  those  bodies,  and  the  magistrates  seem  to  him  to  inter- 
fere in  public  affairs  of  chance,  but  by  a  chance  which  recurs 
every  day. 

When  the  Parliament  of  Paris  remonstrated,  or  refused  to 
enregister  an  edict,  or  when  it  summoned  a  functionary  accused 
of  malversation  to  its  bar,  its  political  influence  as  a  judicial 
body  was  clearly  visible ;  but  nothing  of  the  kind  is  to  be  seen 
in  the  United  States.    The  Americans  have  retained  all  the  ordi- 

96 


DEMOCRACY    IN   AMKRICA 


nary  characteristics  of  judicial  autliority,  and  have  carefully 
restricted  its  action  to  the  ordinary  circle  of  its  functions. 

The  first  characteristic  of  judicial  power  in  all  nations  is  the 
duty  of  arbitration.  But  rights  must  be  contested  in  order  to 
warrant  the  interference  of  a  tribunal ;  and  an  action  nuist  be 
brought  to  obtain  the  decision  of  a  judge.  As  long,  therefore, 
as  the  law  is  uncontested,  the  judicial  authority  is  not  called 
upon  to  discuss  it,  and  it  may  exist  without  being  perceived. 
When  a  judge  in  a  given  case  attacks  a  law  relating  to  that 
case,  he  extends  the  circle  of  his  customary  duties,  without 
however  stepping  beyond  it;  since  he  is  in  some  measure 
obliged  to  decide  upon  the  law  in  order  to  decide  the  case.  But 
if  he  pronounces  upon  a  law  without  resting  upon  a  case,  he 
clearly  steps  beyond  his  sphere,  and  invades  that  of  the  legis- 
lative authority. 

The  second  characteristic  of  judicial  power  is  that  it  pro- 
nounces on  special  cases,  and  not  upon  general  principles.  If 
a  judge  in  deciding  a  particular  point  destroys  a  general  prin- 
ciple, by  passing  a  judgment  which  tends  to  reject  all  the  in- 
ferences from  that  principle,  and  consequently  to  annul  it,  he 
remains  within  the  ordinary  limits  of  his  functions.  But  if  he 
directly  attacks  a  general  principle  without  having  a  particular 
case  in  view,  he  leaves  the  circle  in  which  all  nations  have  agreed 
to  confine  his  authority,  he  assumes  a  more  important,  and  per- 
haps a  more  useful,  influence  than  that  of  the  magistrate,  but 
he  ceases  to  be  a  representative  of  the  judicial  power. 

The  third  characteristic  of  the  judicial  power  is  its  inability 
to  act  unless  it  is  appealed  to,  or  until  it  has  taken  cognizance 
of  an  affair.  This  characteristic  is  less  general  than  the  other 
two;  but,  notwithstanding  the  exceptions,  I  think  it  may  be 
regarded  as  essential.  The  judicial  power  is  by  its  nature  de- 
void of  action ;  it  must  be  put  in  motion  in  order  to  produce 
a  result.  When  it  is  called  upon  to  repress  a  crime,  it  punishes 
the  criminal;  when  a  wrong  is  to  be  redressed,  it  is  ready  to 
redress  it;  when  an  act  requires  interpretation,  it  is  prepared 
to  interpret  it;  but  it  does  not  pursue  criminals,  hunt  out 
wrongs,  oi*  examine  into  evidence  of  its  own  accord.  A  judicial 
functionary  who  should  open  proceedings,  and  usurp  the  cen- 
sorship of  the  laws,  would  in  some  measure  do  violence  to  the 
passive  nature  of  his  authority. 

The  Americans  have  retained  these  three  distinguishing  char- 
VoL.  L—J 


i    I 


0  DK  TOl'OUI'.VIIXF, 

artcristirs  of  the  jiiditial  powrr;  an  Anu'rican  jtulpc  can  only 
piuiKiima'  a  (Urisinn  wluii  litijjation  has  arisi-ii,  lii"  is  only 
conversant  with  sinrial  lasts,  and  ht'  cannot  act  until  the  catisc 
has  Iktii  duly  hrouj^ht  luforc  the  court.  Mis  position  is  tlurc- 
foic  pcrfirtly  similar  to  that  of  the  inaj^istratc  of  otiicr  nations; 
and  lie  is  nevertheless  invested  with  immense  political  p(»wer. 
If  the  sphere  of  his  authority  and  his  means  of  action  are  the 
same  as  those  of  other  judj;es,  it  may  he  asked  whence  he  de- 
rives a  power  which  they  do  not  possess.  The  cause  of  this 
dilTirencc  lies  in  the  simple  fact  that  the  Americans  have  ac- 
Uiiowled^jed  the  rij^ht  of  the  judj^es  to  found  their  decisions  on 
the  constitution  rather  than  on  the  laws.  Tn  other  words,  they 
have  left  them  at  liherty  not  to  apply  such  laws  as  may  appear 
to  them  to  he  unconstitutional. 

I  am  aware  that  a  similar  rij^ht  has  heen  claimed — hut  claimed 
in  vain — hy  courts  of  justice  in  other  countries ;  hut  in  America 
it  is  recojjui/ed  hy  .nil  authorities;  and  not  a  party,  nor  so 
much  as  an  individual,  is  found  to  contest  it.  This  fact  can 
only  he  explained  by  the  principles  of  the  American  constitu- 
tion. In  I'Vance  the  constitution  is  (or  at  least  i.s  suppose<l 
to  he)  innnutahle;  and  the  received  theory  is  that  no  power 
has  the  rij^ht  of  chan^inj;  any  j)art  of  it.  Tn  En^^land  the  I'ar- 
liametU  has  an  acknowledji^ed  rijjht  to  modify  the  constitution; 
as,  therefore,  the  constitution  may  undergo  perpetual  chanj^es, 
it  does  not  in  reality  exist ;  the  T*arliament  is  at  once  a  legis- 
lative and  a  constituent  assembly.  The  political  theories  of 
America  are  more  simple  and  more  rational.  An  American  con- 
.stitntion  is  not  sujiposed  to  be  immutable  as  in  I'Vance,  nor  is 
it  susceptible  of  mollification  by  the  ordinary  powers  of  society 
as  in  luij^land.  Tt  constitutes  a  detached  whole,  which,  as  it 
represents  the  determination  of  the  whole  people,  is  no  less 
biiulinj;  on  the  lejjislator  than  on  the  private  citizen,  biU  which 
may  be  altered  by  the  will  of  the  people  in  predetermined  cases, 
accordinjj  to  established  rules.  In  America  the  constitution 
may  therefore  vary,  but  as  lonp  as  it  exists  it  is  the  origin  of  all 
authority,  and  the  sole  vehicle  of  the  predominatiufj;  force.« 


a  [Tlir  fifth  nrticlc  of  the  oriftinat 
Conslitution  of  the  United  St.itcs  prn- 
vitlcs  tho  ttiodo  in  which  nmcndmcnts  of 
the  Ciinstitution  ni.iy  be  nmde.  Ainrnd- 
tiifiits  nuist  be  propcisei!  by  two-thinl.t 
cif  both  Houses  of  Connrcss,  nml  ratified 
by  tlie  I.e^•islalllrl•s  of  Ihree-foiirlhs  of 
the  several  Stales.  I'ifleen  aiiien<IiMents 
of  the  Constitiitioit  have  fiecn  made  at 


different  times  since  1780.  the  most  im- 
portant of  which  arc  the  Tliirleenth. 
iMMirteenth,  and  l-^ifteentb,  framed  and 
ratified  after  the  Civil  War.  Tlie  origi- 
nal Constitution  of  the  United  Stales, 
followed  by  these  fifteen  amendments, 
is  jirinted  at  the  end  of  this  edition.— 
Translator's  Note,  1874.] 


UICMOCKALY   IN  AMI- RICA 


99 


Tt  is  easy  to  ixrciivc  in  what  tuatiiRT  tlu'sc  dirfcrcnccs  must 
ait  u\H)U  ilif  position  and  tin*  rights  of  tlic  judicial  hodics  in 
the  thiTc  (ounlriis  I  liave  citi-d.  If  in  !•' ranee  the  trihinials 
were  authorized  to  (hsohey  the  hiwson  the  ground  of  their  heinj; 
o|)|)osed  Ift  the  constitution,  tlie  supreme  power  would  in  fact 
lie  plaird  in  their  hands,  since  tijey  alone  would  have  the  rif^ht 
of  inlerpK  '  in^'  a  constitution,  the  clauses  of  which  can  he  modi- 
fied hy  iin  authority,  'i'hey  would  therefore  take  the  place  of 
the  nation,  and  exercise  as  ahsolute  a  sway  over  society  as  the 
inlnTiiit  weakness  of  judicial  power  would  alhjw  them  to  do, 
Undouhtedly,  as  the  I'Vench  judges  are  incompetent  to  declare 
a  law  to  he  unconstitutional,  the  power  of  changing  the  consti- 
tution is  indirectly  given  to  the  legislative  hody,  since  no  legal 
harrier  vvt)uld  ojjpose  the  alterations  whicli  it  might  prescrihe. 
I  hit  it  is  hetter  to  grant  the  power  of  changing  the  constitution 
of  the  i)eople  to  men  who  represent  (however  imperfectly)  the 
will  of  the  people,  than  to  men  who  represent  no  one  but  them- 
selves. 

It  would  be  still  more  unreasonable  to  invest  the  English 
judges  with  the  right  of  resisting  tRc  decisions  of  the  legis- 
lative hody,  sitice  the  Parliament  which  makes  the  laws  also 
makes  the  constitution ;  and  consequently  a  law  emanating  from 
the  three  powers  of  the  State  can  in  no  case  be  unconstitutional. 
But  neither  of  these  remarks  is  applicable  to  America. 

Tn  the  United  States  the  constitution  governs  the  legislator 
as  much  as  the  private  citizen ;  as  it  is  the  first  of  laws  it  can- 
not be  modified  by  a  law,  and  it  is  therefore  just  that  the  tribu- 
nals should  obey  the  constitution  in  preference  to  any  law.  This 
condition  is  essential  to  the  power  of  the  judicature,  for  to  select 
that  legal  obligation  by  which  he  is  most  strictly  bound  is  the 
natural  right  of  every  magistrate. 

In  France  the  constitution  is  also  the  first  of  laws,  and  the 
judges  have  the  same  right  to  take  it  as  the  ground  of  their 
decisions,  but  were  they  to  exercise  this  right  they  must  perforce 
encroach  on  rights  more  sacred  than  their  own,  namely,  on  those 
of  society,  in  whose  name  they  are  acting.  In  this  case  the 
State-mot ic  clearly  prevails  over  the  motives  of  an  individual. 
In  America,  where  the  nation  can  always  reduce  its  magistrates 
to  obedience  by  changing  its  constitution,  no  danger  of  this  kind 
is  to  be  feared.  Upon  this  point,  therefore,  the  i)olitical  and 
the  logical  reasons  agree,  and  tli-:  people  as  well  as  the  judges 
preserve  their  privileges. 


k 


k 


m 


100 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


Whenever  a  law  which  the  judge  holds  to  be  unconstitutional 
is  argued  in  a  tribunal  of  the  United  States  he  may  refuse  to 
admit  it  as  a  rule ;  this  power  is  the  only  one  which  is  peculiar 
to  the  American  magistrate,  but  it  gives  rise  to  immense  politi- 
cal influence.  Fev  laws  can  escape  the  searching  analysis  of 
the  judicial  power  for  any  length  of  time,  for  there  are  few 
which  are  not  prejudicial  to  some  private  interest  or  other,  and 
none  which  may  not  be  brought  before  a  court  of  justice  by  the 
choice  of  parties,  or  by  the  necessity  of  the  case.  But  from  the 
time  that  a  judge  has  refused  to  apply  any  given  law  in  a  case, 
that  law  loses  a  portion  of  its  moral  cogency.  The  persons  to 
whose  interests  it  is  prejudicial  learn  that  means  exist  of  evad- 
ing its  authority,  and  similar  suits  are  multiplied,  until  it  be- 
comes powerless.  One  of  two  alternatives  must  then  be  resorted 
to:  the  people  must  alter  the  constitution,  or  the  legislature 
must  repeal  the  law.  The  political  power  which  the  Americans 
have  intrusted  to  their  courts  of  justice  is  therefore  immense, 
but  the  evils  of  this  power  are  considerably  diminished  by  the 
obligation  which  has  been  imposed  of  attacking  the  laws  through 
the  courts  of  justice  alone.  If  the  judge  had  been  empowered 
to  contest  the  laws  on  the  ground  of  theoretical  generalities, 
if  he  had  been  enabled  to  open  an  attack  or  to  pass  a  censure 
on  the  legislator,  he  would  have  played  a  prominent  part  in  the 
political  sphere;  and  as  the  champion  or  the  antagonist  of  a 
party,  he  would  have  arrayed  the  hostile  passions  of  the  nation 
in  the  conflict.  But  when  a  judge  contests  a  law  applied  to 
some  particular  case  in  an  obscure  proceeding,  the  importance 
of  his  attack  is  concealed  from  the  public  gaze,  his  decision 
bears  upon  the  interest  of  an  individual,  and  if  the  law  is  slighted 
it  is  only  collaterally.  Moreover,  although  it  is  censured,  it  is 
not  abolished ;  its  moral  force  may  be  diminished,  but  its  co- 
gency is  by  no  means  suspended,  and  its  final  destruction  can 
only  be  accomplished  by  the  reiterated  attacks  of  judicial  func- 
tionaries. It  will  readily  be  understood  that  by  connecting  the 
censorship  of  the  laws  with  the  private  interests  of  members  of 
the  community,  and  by  intimately  uniting  the  prosecution  of 
the  law  with  the  prosecution  of  an  individual,  legislation  is  pro- 
tected from  wanton  assailants,  and  from  the  daily  aggressions 
of  party  spirit.  The  errors  of  the  legislator  are  exposed  when- 
ever their  evil  consequences  are  most  felt,  and  it  is  always  a 
poaitive  and  appreciable  fact  which  serves  as  the  basis  of  a 
prosecution. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


lOI 


I  am  inclined  to  believe  this  practice  of  the  American  courts 
to  be  at  once  the  most  favorable  to  liberty  as  well  as  to  public 
order.  If  the  judge  could  only  attack  the  legislator  openly  and 
directly,  he  would  sometimes  be  afraid  to  oppose  any  resistance 
to  his  will ;  and  at  other  moments  party  spirit  might  encourage 
him  to  brave  it  at  every  turn.  The  In  vs  would  consequently 
be  attacked  when  the  power  from  which  they  emanate  is  weak, 
and  obeyed  when  it  is  strong.  That  is  to  say,  when  it  would 
be  useful  to  respect  them  they  would  be  contested,  and  when  it 
would  be  easy  to  convert  them  into  an  instrument  of  oppression 
they  would  be  respected.  But  the  American  judge  is  brought 
into  the  political  arena  independently  of  his  own  will.  He  only 
judges  the  law  because  he  is  obliged  to  judge  a  case.  The 
political  question  which  he  is  called  upon  to  resolve  is  connected 
with  the  interest  of  the  suitors,  and  he  cannot  refuse  to  decide 
it  without  abdicating  the  duties  of  his  post.  He  performs  his 
functions  as  a  citizen  by  fulfilling  the  precise  duties  which  be- 
long to  his  profession  as  a  magistrate.  It  is  true  that  upon 
this  system  the  judicial  censorship  which  is  exercised  by  the 
courts  of  justice  over  the  legislation  cannot  extend  to  all  laws 
indiscriminately,  inasmuch  as  some  of  them  can  never  give  rise 
to  that  exact  species  of  contestation  which  is  termed  a  lawsuit ; 
and  even  when  such  a  contestation  is  possible,  it  may  happen 
that  no  one  cares  to  bring  it  before  a  court  of  justice.  The 
Americans  have  often  felt  this  disadvantage,  but  they  have  left 
the  remedy  incomplete,  lest  they  should  give  it  an  efficacy  which 
might  in  some  cases  prove  dangerous.  Within  these  limits  the 
power  vested  in  the  American  courts  of  justice  of  pronouncing 
a  statute  to  be  unconstitutional  forms  one  of  the  most  powerful 
barriers  which  has  ever  been  devised  against  the  tyranny  of 
political  assemblies. 


Other  Powers  Granted  to  American  Judges 

In  the  United  States  all  the  citizens  have  the  right  of  indicting  public 
functionaries  before  the  ordinary  tribunals — How  they  use  this 
right — Art.  75  of  the  French  Constitution  of  the  An  VIII — The 
Americans  and  the  English  cannot  understand  the  purport  of  this 
clause. 

It  is  perfectly  natural  that  in  a  free  country  like  America  all 
the  citizens  should  have  the  right  of  indicting  public  function- 
aries before  the  ordinary  tribunals,  and  that  all  the  judges 


■v^ 


1  h 


".  :.*. 


/   \ 


W 


f/         I 


102 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


sliotiUl  have  the  power  of  punishing  public  oflfcnccs.  The  right 
granted  to  the  courts  of  justice  of  judging  the  agents  of  the 
executive  government,  when  they  have  violated  the  laws,  is  so 
natural  a  one  that  it  cannot  be  looked  upon  as  an  extraordinary 
privilege.  Nor  do  the  springs  of  government  appear  to  me  to 
be  weakened  in  the  United  States  by  the  custom  which  renders 
all  public  officers  responsible  to  the  judges  of  the  land.  The 
Americans  seem,  on  the  contrary,  to  have  increased  by  this 
means  that  respect  which  is  due  to  the  authorities,  and  at  the 
same  time  to  have  rendered  those  who  are  in  power  more  scru- 
pulous of  offending  public  opinion.  I  was  struck  by  the  small 
number  of  political  trials  which  occur  in  the  United  States,  but 
1  had  no  difficulty  in  accounting  for  this  circumstance.  A  law- 
suit, of  whatever  nature  it  may  be,  is  always  a  difficult  and  ex- 
pensive undertaking.  It  is  easy  to  attack  a  public  man  in  a 
journal,  but  the  motives  which  can  warrant  an  action  at  law 
must  be  serious.  A  solid  ground  of  complaint  must  therefore 
exist  to  induce  an  individual  to  prosecute  a  public  officer,  and 
public  officers  are  careful  not  to  furnish  these  grounds  of  com- 
plaint when  they  are  afraid  of  being  prosecuted. 

This  does  not  depend  upon  the  republican  form  of  American 
institutions,  for  the  same  facts  present  themselves  in  England. 
These  two  nations  do  not  regard  the  impeachment  of  the  prin- 
cipal officers  of  State  as  a  sufficient  guarantee  of  their  inde- 
pendence. But  they  hold  that  the  right  of  minor  prosecutions, 
which  are  within  the  reach  of  the  whole  community,  is  a  better 
pledge  of  freedom  than  those  great  judicial  actions  which  arc 
rarely  employed  imtil  it  is  too  late. 

In  the  Middle  Ages,  when  it  was  very  difficult  to  overtake 
offenders,  the  judges  inflicted  the  most  dreadful  tortures  on 
the  few  who  were  arrested,  which  by  no  means  diminished  the 
number  of  crimes.  It  has  since  been  discovered  that  when 
justice  is  more  certain  and  more  mild,  it  is  at  the  same  time 
more  efficacious.  The  English  and  the  Americans  hold  that 
tyranny  and  oppression  are  to  be  treated  like  any  other  crime, 
by  lessening  the  penalty  and  facilitating  conviction. 

In  the  year  VIII  of  the  French  Republic  a  constitution  was 
drawn  up  in  which  the  following  clause  was  introduced :  "  Art. 
75.  All  the  agents  of  the  government  below  the  rank  of  min- 
isters can  only  be  prosecuted  for  offences  relating  to  their  sev- 
eral functions  by  virtue  of  a  decree  of  the  Conseil  d'Etat;   in 


DEMOrRACY  IN  AMERICA 


103 


which  case  the  prosecution  takes  place  before  the  ordinary 
tribunals."  This  clause  survived  the  "  Constitution  de  I'An 
VllI,"  and  it  is  still  maintained  in  spite  of  the  just  complaints 
of  the  nation.  I  have  always  found  the  utmost  difficulty  in 
explaining  its  meaning  to  Englishmen  or  Americans.  They 
were  at  once  led  to  conclude  that  the  Conseil  d'Etat  in  France 
was  a  great  tribunal,  established  in  the  centre  of  the  kingdom, 
which  exercised  a  preliminary  and  somewhat  tyrannical  juris- 
diction in  all  political  causes.  But  when  I  told  them  that  the 
Conseil  d'Etat  was  not  a  judicial  body,  in  the  common  sense 
of  the  term,  but  an  administrative  council  composed  of  men 
dependent  on  the  Crown,  so  that  the  king,  after  having  ordered 
one  of  his  servants,  called  a  Prefect,  to  commit  an  injustice,  has 
the  power  of  commanding  another  of  his  servants,  called  a 
Councillor  of  State,  to  prevent  the  former  from  being  pun- 
ished ;  when  I  demonstrated  to  them  that  the  citizen  who  has 
been  injured  by  the  order  of  the  sovereign  is  obliged  to  solicit 
from  the  sovereign  permission  to  obtain  redress,  they  refused 
to  credit  so  flagrant  an  abuse,  and  were  tempted  to  accuse  me 
of  falsehood  or  of  ignorance.  It  frequently  happened  before  the 
Revolution  that  a  Parliament  issued  a  warrant  against  a  public 
officer  who  had  committed  an  offence,  and  sometimes  the  pro- 
ceedings were  stopped  by  the  authority  of  the  Crown,  which 
enforced  compliance  with  its  absolute  and  despotic  will.  It  is 
painful  to  perceive  how  much  lower  we  are  sunk  than  our  fore- 
fathers, since  we  allow  things  to  pass  under  the  color  of  justice 
and  the  sanction  of  the  law  which  violence  alone  could  impose 
upon  them. 


il 


I'; 

If 


it 


hi'' 


I  i'\ 


Av 


I  ! 


CHAPTER  VII 

POLITICAL    JURISDICTION  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Definition  of  political  jurisdiction — What  is  understood  by  political 
jurisdiction  in  P'rance,  in  England,  and  in  the  United  States — In 
America  the  political  judge  can  only  pass  sentence  on  public  of- 
ficers— He  more  frequently  passes  a  sentence  of  removal  from  office 
than  a  penalty — Political  jurisdiction  as  it  exists  in  the  United  States 
is,  notwithstanding  its  mildness,  and  perhaps  in  consequence  of  that 
mildness,  a  most  powerful  instrument  in  the  hands  of  the  majority. 

I  UNDERSTAND,  by  political  jurisdiction,  that  temporary 
right  of  pronouncing  a  legal  decision  with  which  a  political 
body  may  be  invested. 
In  absolute  governments  no  utility  can  accrue  from  the  intro- 
duction of  extraordinary  forms  of  procedure;  the  prince  in 
whose  name  an  offender  is  prosecuted  is  as  much  the  sovereign 
of  the  courts  of  justice  as  of  everything  else,  and  the  idea  which 
is  entertained  of  his  power  is  of  itself  a  sufficient  security.  The 
only  thing  he  has  to  fear  is,  that  the  external  formalities  of 
justice  should  be  neglected,  and  that  his  authority  should  be 
dishonored  from  a  wish  to  render  it  more  absolute.  But  in 
most  free  countries,  in  which  the  majority  can  never  exercise 
the  same  influence  upon  the  tribunals  as  an  absolute  monarch, 
the  judicial  power  has  occasionally  been  vested  for  a  time  in 
the  representatives  of  the  nation.  It  has  been  thought  better 
to  introduce  a  temporary  confusion  between  the  functions  of  the 
different  authorities  than  to  violate  the  necessary  principle  of 
the  unity  of  government. 

England,  France,  and  the  United  States  have  established 
this  political  jurisdiction  by  law ;  and  it  is  curious  to  examine 
the  different  adaptations  which  these  three  great  nations  have 
made  of  the  principle.  In  England  and  in  France  the  House 
of  Lords  and  the  Chambre  des  Paris  o  constitute  the  highest 
criminal  court  of  their  respective  nations,  and  although  they 

a  [As  it  existed  under  tlie  constitutional  monarchy  down  to  1848.] 

104 


¥H 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


105 


do  not  habitually  try  all  political  offences,  they  are  competent 
to  try  them  all.  Another  political  body  enjoys  the  right  of  im- 
peachment before  the  House  of  Lords:  the  only  difference 
which  exists  between  the  two  countries  in  this  respect  is,  that 
in  England  the  Commons  may  impeach  whomsoever  they  please 
before  the  Lords,  whilst  in  France  the  Deputies  can  only  employ 
this  mode  of  prosecution  against  the  ministers  of  the  Crown. 

In  both  countries  the  Upper  House  may  make  use  of  all  the 
existing  penal  laws  of  the  nation  to  punish  the  delinquents. 

In  the  United  States,  as  well  as  in  Europe,  one  branch  of  the 
legislature  is  authorized  to  impeach  and  another  to  judge :  the 
House  of  Representatives  arraigns  the  offender,  and  the  Sen- 
ate awards  his  sentence.  But  the  Senate  can  only  try  such  per- 
sons as  are  brought  before  it  by  the  House  of  Representatives, 
and  those  persons  must  belong  to  the  class  of  public  function- 
aries. Thus  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Senate  is  less  extensive  than 
that  of  the  Peers  of  France,  whilst  the  right  of  impeachment 
by  the  Representatives  is  more  general  than  that  of  the  Depu- 
ties. But  the  great  difference  which  exists  between  Europe  and 
America  is,  that  in  Europe  political  tribunals  are  empowered 
to  inflict  all  the  dispositions  of  the  penal  code,  while  in  America, 
when  they  have  deprived  the  offender  of  his  official  rank,  and 
have  declared  him  incapable  of  filling  any  political  office  for  the 
future,  their  jurisdiction  terminates  and  that  of  the  ordinary 
tribunals  begins. 

Suppose,  for  instance,  that  the  President  of  the  United  States 
has  committed  the  crime  of  high  treason ;  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives impeaches  him,  and  the  Senate  degrades  him ;  he 
must  then  be  tried  by  a  jury,  which  alone  can  deprive  him  of 
his  liberty  or  his  life.  This  accurately  illustrates  the  subject 
we  are  treating.  The  political  jurisdiction  which  is  established 
by  the  laws  of  Europe  is  intended  to  try  great  offenders,  what- 
ever may  be  their  birth,  their  rank,  or  their  powers  in  the  State ; 
and  to  this  end  all  the  privileges  of  the  courts  of  justice  are 
temporarily  extended  to  a  great  political  assembly.  The  legis- 
lator is  then  transformed  into  the  majristrate ;  he  is  called  upon 
to  admit,  to  distinguish,  and  to  punish  the  offence ;  and  as  he 
exercises  all  the  authority  of  a  judge,  the  law  restricts  him  to 
the  observance  of  all  the  duties  of  that  high  office,  and  of  all 
the  formalities  of  justice.  When  a  public  functionary  is  im- 
peached before  an  English  or  a  French  political  tribunal,  and 


yi 


■i'i 


\-> 


.  i 


io6 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


is  found  guilty,  the  sentence  deprives  him  ipso  facto  of  his 
functions,  and  it  may  pronounce  him  to  be  incapable  of  resum- 
ing them  or  any  others  for  the  future.  But  in  this  case  the 
political  interdict  is  a  consequence  of  the  sentence,  and  not  the 
sentence  itself.  In  Europe  the  sentence  of  a  political  tribunal 
is  to  be  regarded  as  a  judicial  verdict  rather  than  as  an  admin- 
istrative measure.  In  the  United  States  the  contrary  takes 
place;  and  although  the  decision  of  the  Senate  is  judicial  in 
its  form,  since  the  Senators  are  obliged  to  comply  with  the 
practices  and  formalities  of  a  court  of  justice;  although  it  is 
judicial  in  respect  to  the  motives  on  which  it  is  founded, 
since  the  Senate  is  in  general  obliged  to  take  an  offence  at 
common  law  as  the  basis  of  its  sentence;  nevertheless  the  ob- 
ject of  the  proceeding  is  purely  administrative.  If  it  had 
been  the  intention  of  the  American  legislator  to  invest  a  po- 
litical body  with  great  judicial  authority,  its  action  would 
not  have  been  limited  to  the  circle  of  public  functionaries,  since 
the  most  dangerous  enemies  of  the  State  may  be  in  the  posses- 
sion of  no  functions  at  all ;  and  this  is  especially  true  in  repub- 
lics, where  party  influence  is  the  first  of  authorities,  and  where 
the  strength  of  many  a  leader  is  increased  by  his  exercising 
no  legal  power. 

If  it  had  been  the  intention  of  the  American  legislator  to  give 
society  the  means  of  repressing  State  offences  by  exemplary 
punishment,  according  to  the  practice  of  ordinary  justice,  the 
resources  of  the  penal  code  would  all  have  been  placed  at  the 
disposal  of  the  political  tribunals.  But  the  weapon  with  which 
they  are  intrusted  is  an  imperfect  one,  and  it  can  never  reach 
the  most  dangerous  offenders,  since  men  who  aim  at  the  entire 
subversion  of  the  laws  are  not  likely  to  murmur  at  a  political 
interdict. 

The  main  object  of  the  political  jurisdiction  which  obtains 
in  the  United  States  is,  therefore,  to  deprive  the  ill-disposed 
citizen  of  an  authority  which  he  has  used  amiss,  and  to  prevent 
him  from  ever  acquiring  it  again.  This  is  evidently  an  admin- 
istrative measure  sanctioned  by  the  formalities  of  a  judicial 
decision.  In  this  matter  the  Americans  have  created  a  mixed 
system ;  they  have  surrounded  the  act  which  removes  a  public 
functionary  with  the  securities  of  a  political  trial;  and  they 
have  deprived  all  political  condemnations  of  their  severest  pen- 
alties.   Every  link  of  the  system  may  easily  be  traced  from  this 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


107 


point;  we  at  once  perceive  why  the  American  constitutions 
subject  all  the  civil  functionaries  to  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Sen- 
ate, whilst  I.  e  military,  whose  crimes  are  nevertheless  more 
formidable,  are  exempted  from  that  tribunal.  In  the  civil  ser- 
vice none  of  the  American  functionaries  can  be  said  to  be  re- 
movable ;  the  places  which  some  of  them  occupy  are  inalienable, 
and  the  others  are  chosen  for  a  term  which  cannot  be  shortened. 
It  is  therefore  necessary  to  try  them  all  in  order  to  deprive  them 
of  their  authority.  But  military  officers  are  dependent  on  the 
chief  magistrate  of  the  State,  who  is  himself  a  civil  function- 
ary, and  the  decision  which  condemns  him  is  a  blow  upon 
them  all. 

If  we  now  compare  the  American  and  the  European  systems, 
we  shall  meet  with  differences  no  less  striking  in  the  different 
effects  which  each  of  them  produces  or  may  produce.  In  France 
and  in  England  the  jurisdiction  of  political  bodies  is  looked 
upon  as  an  extraordinary  resource,  which  is  only  to  be  employed 
in  order  to  rescue  society  from  unwonted  dangers.  It  is  not 
to  be  denied  that  these  tribunals,  as  they  are  constituted  in 
Europe,  are  apt  to  violate  the  coservative  principle  of  the  balance 
of  power  in  the  State,  and  to  threaten  incessantly  the  lives  and 
liberties  of  the  subject.  The  same  political  jurisdiction  in  the 
United  States  is  only  indirectly  hostile  to  the  balance  of  power ; 
it  cannot  menace  the  lives  of  the  citizens,  and  it  does  not  hover, 
as  in  Europe,  over  the  heads  of  the  community,  since  those 
only  who  have  submitted  to  its  authority  on  accepting  office 
are  exposed  to  the  severity  of  its  investigations.  It  is  at  the 
same  time  less  formidable  and  less  efficacious;  indeed,  it  has 
not  been  considered  by  the  legislators  of  the  United  States  as 
a  remedy  for  the  more  violent  evils  of  society,  but  as  an  ordi- 
nary means  of  conducting  the  government.  In  this  respect  it 
probably  exercises  more  real  influence  on  the  social  body  in 
America  than  in  Europe.  We  must  not  be  misled  by  the  appar- 
ent mildness  of  the  American  legislation  in  all  that  relates  to 
political  jurisdiction.  It  is  to  be  observed,  in  the  first  place, 
that  in  the  United  States  the  tribunal  which  passes  sentence  is 
composed  of  the  same  elements,  and  subject  to  the  same  influ- 
ences, as  the  body  which  impeaches  the  offender,  and  that  this 
uniformity  gives  an  almost  irresistible  impulse  to  the  vindictive 
passions  of  parties.  If  political  judges  in  the  United  States  can- 
not inflict  such  heavy  penalties  as  those  of  Europe,  there  is 


fvil 


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V   ; 


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io8 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


the  less  chance  of  their  acquitting  a  prisoner ;  and  the  convic- 
tion, if  it  is  less  formidable,  is  more  certain.  The  principal 
object  of  the  political  tribunals  of  Europe  is  to  punish  the  of- 
fender ;  the  purpose  of  those  in  America  is  to  deprive  him  of 
his  authority.  A  political  condemnation  in  the  United  States 
may,  therefore,  be  looked  upon  as  a  preventive  measure ;  and 
there  is  no  reason  for  restricting  the  judges  to  the  exact  defini- 
tions of  criminal  law.  Nothing  can  be  more  alarming  than  the 
excessive  latitude  with  which  political  oflfences  are  described 
in  the  laws  of  America.  Article  II.,  Section  4,  of  the  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States  runs  thus : — "  The  President,  Vice- 
President,  and  all  civil  officers  of  the  United  States  shall  be 
removed  from  office  on  impeachment  for,  and  conviction  of, 
treason,  bribery,  or  other  high  crimes  and  misdemeanors." 
Many  of  the  Constitutions  of  the  States  are  even  less  explicit. 
"Public  officers,"  says  the  Constitution  of  Massachusetts,*  "shall 
be  impeached  for  misconduct  or  maladministration ;  "  the  Con- 
stitution of  Virginia  declares  that  all  the  civil  officers  who  shall 
have  oflfended  against  the  State,  by  maladministration,  corrup- 
tion, or  other  high  crimes,  may  be  impeached  by  the  House  of 
Delegates;  in  some  constitutions  no  offences  are  specified,  in 
order  to  subject  the  publjc  functionaries  to  an  unlimited  respon- 
sibility.c  But  I  will  venture  to  affirm  that  it  is  precisely  their 
mildness  which  renders  the  American  laws  most  formidable  in 
this  respect.  We  have  shown  that  in  Europe  the  removal  of 
a  functionary  and  his  political  interdiction  are  the  consequences 
of  the  penalty  he  is  to  undergo,  and  that  in  America  they  con- 
stitute the  penalty  itself.  The  consequence  is  that  in  Europe 
political  tribunals  are  invested  with  rights  which  they  are  afraid 
to  use,  and  that  the  fear  of  punishing  too  much  hinders  them 
from  punishing  at  all.  But  in  America  no  one  hesitates  to  inflict 
a  penalty  from  which  humanity  does  not  recoil.  To  condemn 
a  political  opponent  to  death,  in  order  to  deprive  him  of  his 
power,  is  to  commit  what  all  the  world  would  execrate  as  a 
horrible  assassination ;  but  to  declare  that  opponent  unworthy 
to  exercise  that  authority,  to  deprive  him  of  it,  and  to  leave 
him  uninjured  in  ''fe  and  limb,  may  be  judged  to  be  the  fair 
issue  of  the  struggle.  But  this  sentence,  which  it  is  so  easy 
to  pronounce,  is  not  the  less  fatally  severe  to  the  majority  of 


b  Chap.  I.  sect.  ii.  §  8. 


c  See    the    constitutions    of    Illinois, 
Maine,  Connecticut,  and  Georgia. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


109 


those  upon  whom  it  is  inflicted.  Great  criminals  may  undoubt- 
edly brave  its  intangible  rigor,  but  ordinary  offenders  will  dread 
it  as  a  condemnation  which  destroys  their  position  in  the  world, 
casts  a  blight  upon  their  honor,  and  condemns  them  to  a  shame- 
ful inactivity  worse  than  death.  The  influence  exercised  in  the 
United  States  upon  the  progress  of  society  by  the  jurisdiction 
of  political  bodies  may  not  appear  to  be  formidable,  but  it  is 
only  the  more  immense.  It  does  not  directly  coerce  the  subject 
but  it  renders  the  majority  more  absolute  over  those  in  power ; 
it  does  not  confer  an  unbounded  authority  on  the  legislator 
which  can  only  be  exerted  at  some  momentous  crisis,  but  it 
establishes  a  temperate  and  regular  influence,  which  is  at  all 
times  available.  If  the  power  is  decreased,  it  can,  on  the  other 
hand,  be  more  conveniently  employed  and  more  easily  abused. 
By  preventing  political  tribunals  from  inflicting  judicial  pun- 
ishments the  Americans  seem  to  have  eluded  the  worst  conse- 
quences of  legislative  tyranny,  rather  than  tyranny  itself ;  and 
I  am  not  sure  that  political  jurisdiction,  as  it  is  constituted  in 
the  United  States,  is  not  the  most  formidable  weapon  which 
has  ever  been  placed  in  the  rude  grasp  of  a  popular  majority. 
When  the  American  republics  begin  to  degenerate  it  will  be 
easy  to  verify  the  truth  of  this  observation,  by  remarking 
whether  the  number  of  political  impeachments  augments.^ 


d  See  Appendix,  N. 

[The  impeachment  of  President  An- 
drew Johnson  in  1868— which  was  re- 
sorted to  by  his  political  opponents 
solely  as  a  means  of  turning  him  out 
of  office,  for  it  could  not  be  contended 


that  he  had  been  guilty  of  high  crimes 
and  misdemeanors,  and  he  was  in  fact 
honorably  t  cquitted  and  reinstated  in 
office — is  a  striking  confirmation  of  the 
truth  of  this  tetanic.— Translator's  Note, 
1874I 


I 


f 


CHAPTER   VIII 


w 


\\ 


THE  FEDERAL  CONSTITUTION 

I  HAVE  hitherto  considered  each  State  as  a  separate  whole, 
and  I  have  explained  the  different  springs  which  the  peo- 
ple sets  in  motion,  and  the  different  means  of  action  which 
it  employs.  But  all  the  States  which  I  have  considered  as  inde- 
pendent are  forced  to  submit,  in  certain  oases,  to  the  supreme 
authority  of  the  Union.  The  time  is  now  come  for  me  to  exam- 
ine separately  the  supremacy  with  which  the  Union  has  been  in- 
vested, and  to  cast  a  rapid  glance  over  the  Federal  Constitu- 
tion. 

History  of  the  Federal  Constitution 

Origin  of  the  first  Union — Its  weakness — Congress  appeals  to  the  con- 
stituent authority — Interval  of  two  years  between  this  appeal  and 
the  promulgation  of  the  new  Constitution. 

The  thirteen  colonies  which  simultaneously  threw  off  the  yoke 
of  England  towards  the  end  of  the  last  century  professed,  as  I 
have  already  observed,  the  same  religion,  the  same  language, 
the  same  customs,  and  almost  the  same  laws ;  they  were  strug- 
gling against  a  common  enemy ;  and  these  reasons  were  suffi- 
ciently strong  to  unite  them  one  to  another,  and  to  consolidate 
them  into  one  nation.  But  as  each  of  them  had  enjoyed  a  sepa- 
rate existence  and  a  government  within  its  own  control,  the 
peculiar  interests  and  customs  which  resulted  from  this  system 
were  opposed  to  a  compact  and  intimate  union  which  would 
have  absorbed  the  individual  importance  of  each  in  the  general 
importance  of  all.  Hence  arose  two  opposite  tendencies,  the 
one  prompting  the  Anglo-Americans  to  unite,  the  other  to  di- 
vide their  strength.  As  long  as  the  war  with  the  mother-coun- 
try lasted  the  principle  of  union  was  kept  alive  by  necessity; 
and  although  the  laws  which  constituted  it  were  defective,  the 
common  tie  subsisted  in  spite  of  their  imperfections.o    But  no 

a  See  tlie  articles  of  tlie  first  confeder-  constitution  in  "  The  Federalist  "  from 

ation  formed  in  1778.     This  constitution  No.  15  to  No.  22,  inclusive,  and  Story's 

was  not  adopted  by  all  the  States  until  "  Commentaries  on  the  Constitution  of 

1781,    Sec  also  tlic  analysis  given  of  this  the  United  States,"  pp.  85-115. 

1 10 


1    . 


DEMOCRACY   IN   AMERICA 


III 


sooner  was  peace  concliulcd  than  the  faults  of  the  legislation 
iKcanic  manifest,  and  the  State  seemed  to  be  suddenly  dis- 
solved. Each  colony  became  an  independent  republic,  and  as- 
sumed an  absolute  sovereignty.  The  federal  government,  con- 
demned to  impotence  by  its  constitution,  and  no  longer  sustained 
by  the  presence  of  a  connnon  danger,  witnessed  the  outrages 
ort'ered  to  its  flag  by  the  great  nations  of  Europe,  whilst  it  was 
scarcely  able  to  maintain  its  ground  against  the  Indian  tribes, 
and  to  pay  the  interest  of  the  debt  which  had  been  contracted 
during  the  war  of  independence.  It  was  already  on  the  verge 
of  ilestruction,  when  it  oflficially  proclaimed  its  inability  to  con- 
duct the  governmer.c,  and  appealed  to  the  constituent  authority 
of  the  nation.fr  Ji  America  ever  approached  (for  however  brief 
a  time)  that  lofty  pinnacle  of  glory  to  which  the  fancy  of  its  in- 
habitants is  wont  vo  point,  it  was  at  the  solemn  moment  at  which 
the  power  of  the  nation  abdicated,  as  it  were,  the  empire  of  the 
land.  All  ages  have  furnished  the  spectacle  of  a  people  strug- 
gling with  energy  to  win  its  independence ;  and  the  efforts  of 
the  Americans  in  throwing  off  the  English  yoke  have  been  con- 
siderably exaggerated.  Separated  from  their  enemies  by  three 
thousand  miles  of  ocean,  and  backed  by  a  powerful  ally,  the 
success  of  the  United  States  may  be  more  justly  attributed  to 
their  geographical  position  than  to  the  valor  of  their  armies  or 
the  patriotism  of  their  citizens.  It  would  be  ridiculous  to  com- 
pare the  American  war  to  the  wars  of  the  French  Revolution,  or 
the  efforts  of  the  Americans  to  those  of  the  French  when  they 
were  attacked  by  the  whole  of  Europe,  without  credit  and  with- 
out allies,  yet  capable  of  opposing  a  twentieth  part  of  their  popu- 
lation to  the  world,  and  of  bearing  the  torch  of  revolution  beyond 
their  frontiers  whilst  they  stifled  its  devouring  flame  within  the 
bosom  of  their  country.  But  it  is  a  novelty  in  the  history  of  so- 
ciety to  see  a  great  people  turn  a  calm  and  scrutinizing  eye  upon 
itself,  when  apprised  by  the  legislature  that  the  wheels  of  gov- 
ernment are  stopped ;  to  see  it  carefully  examine  the  extent  of 
the  evil,  and  patiently  wait  for  two  whole  years  until  a  remedy 
was  discovered,  which  it  voluntarily  adopted  without  having 
wrung  a  tear  or  a  drop  of  blood  from  mankind.  At  the  time 
when  the  inadequacy  of  the  first  constitution  was  discovered 
America  possessed  the  double  advantage  of  that  calm  which  h?'d 
succeeded  the  effervescence  of  the  revolution,  and  of  those  great 

b  Congress  made  this  declaration  on  February  2j,  1787. 


J^ 


V 


r 


»    1 


•   4 


lit 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


iiicti  who  liad  led  the  revolution  to  a  successful  issue.  The  as- 
sembly which  accepted  the  task  of  composing  the  second  consti- 
tution was  small ;  c  but  George  Washington  was  its  President, 
and  it  contained  the  choicest  talents  and  the  noblest  hearts  which 
had  ever  appeared  in  the  New  World.  This  national  commis- 
sion, after  long  and  mature  deliberation,  offered  to  the  ac- 
ceptance of  the  people  the  body  of  general  laws  which  still  rules 
the  Union.  All  the  States  adopted  it  successively.*'  The  new 
Federal  Government  commenced  its  functions  in  1789,  after  an 
interregnum  of  two  years.  The  Revolution  of  America  termi- 
nated when  that  of  France  began. 


•v\. 


i 


1       :' 


Summary  of  the  Federal  Constitution 

Division  of  authority  between  the  Federal  Government  and  the  States 
— The  Government  of  the  States  is  the  rule,  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment the  exception. 

The  first  question  which  awaited  the  Americans  was  intri- 
cate, and  by  no  means  easy  of  solution :  the  object  was  so  to  di- 
vide the  authority  of  the  different  States  which  composed  the 
Ur,'On  that  each  of  them  should  continue  to  govern  itself  in  all 
that  concerned  its  internal  prosperity,  whilst  the  entire  nation, 
represented  by  the  Union,  should  continue  to  form  a  compact 
body,  and  co  provide  for  the  general  exigencies  of  the  people. 
It  was  as  impossible  to  determine  beforehand,  with  any  degree 
of  accuracy,  the  share  of  authority  which  each  of  two  govern- 
ments was  to  enjoy,  as  to  foresee  all  the  incidents  in  the  existence 
of  a  nation. 

The  obligations  and  the  claims  of  the  Federal  Government 
were  simple  and  easily  definable,  because  the  Union  had  been 
formed  with  the  express  purpose  of  meeting  the  general  exigen- 
cies of  the  people ;  but  the  claims  and  obligations  of  the  States 
were,  on  the  other  hand,  complicated  and  various,  because  those 
Governments  had  penetrated  into  all  the  details  of  social  life. 
The  attributes  of  the  Federal  Government  were  therefore  care- 
fully enumerated  and  all  that  was  not  included  amongst  them 
was  declared  to  constitute  a  part  of  the  privileges  of  the  several 
Governments  of  the  States.    Thus  the  government  of  the  States 


f  Tt  consisted  of  fifty-five  members  : 
WasfiinRton,  Madison,  Hamilton,  and 
the  two  Morrises  were  amongst  the 
number. 

dit  was  not  adopted  by  the  legisla- 


tive bodies,  but  representatives  were 
elected  by  the  people  for  this  sole  pur- 
pose ;  and  the  new  constitution  was  dis- 
cussed at  length  in  each  of  these  as- 
semblies. 


IH 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


"3 


remained  the  rule,  and  that  of  tlic  Confcdiration  became  the  ex- 
ception.f 

But  as  it  was  foreseen  tliat,  in  practice,  questions  might  arise 
as  to  the  exact  hmits  of  this  exceptiunul  authority,  and  that  it 
would  be  dangerous  to  submit  these  (jucstions  to  the  decision 
of  the  ordinary  courts  of  justice,  established  in  the  States  by  the 
States  themselves,  a  high  Federal  court  was  created,^  which 
was  destined,  amongst  other  functions,  to  maintain  the  balance 
of  power  which  had  been  established  by  the  Constitution  be- 
tween the  two  rival  Govcrnments.ir 


r 


Prerogative  of  the  Federal  Government 

Power  of  declaring  war,  making  peace,  and  levying  general  taxes 
vested  in  the  Federal  Government — What  part  of  the  mtcrnal  policy 
of  the  country  it  may  direct — The  Government  of  the  Union  in 
some  respects  more  central  than  the  King's  Government  in  the  old 
French  monarchy. 

The  external  relations  of  a  people  may  be  compared  to  those 
of  private  individuals,  and  they  cannot  be  advantageously 
maintained  without  the  agency  of  a  single  head  of  a  Govern- 
ment. The  exclusive  right  of  ni;'  mg  peace  and  war,  of  con- 
cluding treaties  of  commerce,  of  raising  armies,  and  equipping 
fleets,  was  granted  to  the  Union.'*  The  necessity  of  a  national 
Government  was  less  imperiously  felt  in  the  conduct  of  the 


f 


«  See  the  Amendment  to  the  Federal 
Constitution  ;  "  Federalist,"  No.  32  : 
Story,  p.  711  ;  Kent's  "  Commentaries," 
vol.  i.  p.  364. 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  whenever  the 
exclusive  right  of  regulating  certain  mat- 
ters is  not  reserved  to  Congress  by  the 
Constitution,  the  .States  may  take  up 
the  affair  until  it  is  brought  before  the 
National  Assembly.    For  instance,  Con- 

firess  has  the  right  of  making  a  general 
aw  on  bankruptcy,  which,  however,  it 
neglects  to  do.  Each  State  is  then  at 
liberty  to  make  a  law  for  itself.  This 
point  has  been  established  by  discussion 
in  the  law-courts,  and  may  be  said  to 
belong  more  properly  to  jurisprudence. 
f  The  action  o!  this  court  is  indirect, 
as  we  shall  hereafter  show. 

g  It  is  thus  that  "  The  Federalist,"  No. 
4S,  explains  the  division  of  supremacy 
between  the  Union  and  the  States  : 
"  The  powers  delegated  by  the  Constitu- 
tion to  the  Federal  Government  are  few 
and  defined.  Those  which  are  to  re- 
main in  the  State  Governments  are  nu- 
merous and  indefinite.  The  former  will 
be  exercised  principally  on  external  ob- 
jects, as  war,  peace,  negotiation,  and 
foreign  commerce.    The  powers  reserved 

Vol.  I.— 8 


to  the  several  States  will  extend  to  all 
the  objects  which,  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  affairs,  concern  the  internal 
order  and  prosperity  of  the  State."  I 
shall  often  have  occasion  to  quote  "  The 
Federalist  "  in  this  work.  When  the 
bill  which  has  since  become  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  United  States  wa  \  sub- 
mitted to  the  approval  of  the  t  eoplc, 
and  the  discussions  were  still  p'  nding. 
three  men,  who  had  already  acijuirod 
a  portion  of  that  celebrity  which  they 
have  since  enjoyed— John  Jay,  Hamif- 
ton,  and  Madison — formed  an  associa- 
tion with  the  intention  of  explaining  to 
the  nation  the  advantages  of  the  measure 
which  was  proposed.  With  this  view 
they  published  a  series  of  articles  in  the 
shape  of  a  journal,  wliich  now  form  a 
complete  treatise.  They  entitled  their 
journal  "  The  Federalist,"  a  name  which 
has  been  retained  in  the  work.  "  The 
Federalist  "  is  an  excellent  book,  which 
ought  to  be  familiar  to  the  statesmen  of 
all  countries,  although  it  especially  con- 
cerns America. 

h  See  Constitution,  sect.  8  ;  "  Federal- 
ist," Nos.  41  and  42  ;  Kent's  "Commen- 
taries." vol.  i.  p.  207  ;  Story,  pp.  358- 
382  ;  Ibid.  pp.  409-426. 


1 


If 


« 


r 


114 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


V  ;■■■ 


!' 


'U 


internal  policy  of  society;  but  there  are  certain  general  inter- 
ests which  can  only  be  attended  to  with  advantage  by  a  general 
authority.  The  Union  was  invested  with  the  power  of  con- 
trolling the  monetary  system,  of  directing  the  post  office,  and 
of  opening  the  great  roads  which  were  to  establish  a  communi- 
cation between  the  different  parts  of  the  country.*  The  inde- 
pendence of  the  Government  of  each  State  was  formally  recog- 
nized in  its  sphere ;  nevertheless,  the  Federal  Government  was 
authorized  to  interfere  in  the  internal  affairs  of  the  States;  in  a 
few  predetermined  cases,  in  which  an  indiscreet  abuse  of  their 
independence  might  compromise  the  security  of  the  Union  at 
large.  Thus,  whilst  the  power  of  modifying  and  changing  their 
legislation  at  pleasure  was  preserved  in  all  the  republics,  they 
were  forbidden  to  enact  ex  post  facto  laws,  or  to  create  a  class 
of  nobles  in  their  community.*  Lastly,  as  it  was  necessary 
that  the  Federal  Government  should  be  able  to  fulfil  its  engage- 
ments, it  was  endowed  with  an  unlimited  power  of  levying 
taxes./ 

In  examining  the  balance  of  power  as  established  by  the 
Federal  Constitution ;  in  remarking  on  the  one  hand  the  por- 
tion of  sovereignty  which  has  been  reserved  to  the  several 
States,  and  on  the  other  the  share  of  power  which  the  Union 
has  assumed,  it  is  evident  that  the  Federal  legislators  enter- 
tained the  clearest  and  most  accurate  notions  on  the  nature  of 
the  centralization  of  government.  The  Unite''  States  form 
not  only  a  republic,  but  a  confederation;  nev  *'  less  the  au- 
thority of  the  nation  is  more  central  than  it  was  in  several  of  the 
monarchies  of  Europe  when  the  American  Constitution  was 
formed.    Take,  for  instance,  the  two  following  examples. 

Thirteen  supreme  courts  of  justice  existed  in  France,  which, 
generally  speaking,  had  the  right  of  interpreting  the  law  with- 
out appeal ;  and  those  provinces  which  were  styled  pays  d'etats 
were  authorized  to  refuse  their  assent  to  an  impost  which  had 
been  levied  by  the  sovereign  who  represented  the  nation.  In 
the  Union  there  is  but  one  tribunal  to  interpret,  as  there  is  one 
legislature  to  make  the  laws ;  and  an  impost  voted  by  the  rep- 


»■  Several  other  privilefres  of  the  same 
kind  exist,  such  as  tl'  t  which  empowers 
the  Union  to  legislate  on  bankruptcy, 
to  grant  patents,  and  other  matters  in 
which  its  intervention  is  clearly  neces- 
sary. 

;'  Even  in  these  cases  its  interference 
is  indirect.     The  Union  interferes  by 


means  of  the  tribunals,  as  will  be  here- 
after shown.  , 

k  Federal  Constitution,  sect.  lo,  art.  i. 

/  Constitution,  sects.  8,  g,  and  lo  : 
"  Federalist,"  Nos.  30-36,  inclusive,  and 
41-44  ;  Kent's  "  Commentaries,"  vol.  i. 
pp.  307  and  381  ;  Story,  pp.  329  and  514. 


H  1 1*^ 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


"5 


resentatives  of  the  nation  is  binding  upon  all  the  citizens.  In 
these  two  essentia)  points,  therefore,  the  Union  exercises  more 
central  authority  than  the  French  monarchy  possessed,  al- 
though the  Union  is  only  an  assemblage  of  confederate  re- 
publics. 

In  Spain  certain  provinces  had  the  right  of  establishing  a 
system  of  custom-house  duties  peculiar  to  themselves,  although 
that  privilege  belongs,  by  its  very  nature,  to  the  national  sov- 
ereignty. In  America  the  Congress  alone  has  the  right  of  reg- 
ulating the  commercial  relations  of  the  States.  The  govern- 
ment of  the  Confederation  is  therefore  more  centralized  in  this 
respect  than  the  kingdom  of  Spain.  It  is  true  that  the  power 
of  the  Crown  in  France  or  in  Spain  was  always  able  to  obtain 
by  force  whatever  the  Constitution  of  the  country  denied,  and 
that  the  ultimate  result  was  consequently  the  same ;  but  I  am 
here  discussing  the  theory  of  the  Constitution. 


il 


Federal  Powers 

After  having  settled  the  limits  within  which  the  Federal 
Government  was  to  act,  the  next  point  was  to  determine  the 
powers  which  it  was  to  exert. 


ill  be  here- 


Legislative  Powers  »» 

Division  of  the  Legislative  Body  into  two  branches — Difference  in  the 
manner  of  forming  the  two  Houses — The  principle  of  the  independ- 
ence of  the  States  predominates  in  the  formation  of  the  Senate — 
The  principle  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  nation  in  the  composition  of 
the  House  of  Representatives — Singular  effects  of  the  fact  that  a 
Constitution  can  only  be  logical  in  the  early  stages  of  a  nation. 

The  plan  which  had  been  laid  down  beforehand  for  the  Con- 
stitutions of  the  several  States  was  followed,  in  many  points, 
in  the  organization  of  the  powers  of  the  Union.  The  Federal 
legislature  of  the  Union  was  composed  of  a  Senate  and  a  House 
of  Representatives.  A  spirit  of  conciliation  prescribed  the  ob- 
servance of  distinct  principles  in  the  formation  of  these  two 
assemblies.  I  have  already  shown  that  two  contrary  interests 
were  opposed  to  each  other  in  the  establishment  of  the  Federal 
Constitution.  These  two  interests  had  given  rise  to  two  opin- 
ions.    It  was  the  wish  of  one  party  to  convert  the  Union  into 


m  [In  this  chapter  the  author  points 
out  the  essence  of  the  conflict  between 


the  seceding  States  and  the  Union  which 
caused  the  Civil  War  of  1861.] 


1 
1} 


/" 


') 


ii6 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


:? 


W  I'. 


:<] 


f 


a  league  of  independent  States,  or  a  sort  of  congress,  at  which 
the  representatives  of  the  several  peoples  would  meet  to  discuss 
certain  points  of  their  common  interests.  The  other  party  de- 
sired to  unite  the  inhabitants  of  the  American  colonies  into  one 
sole  nation,  and  to  establish  a  Government  which  should  act 
as  the  sole  representative  of  the  nation,  as  far  as  the  limited 
sphere  of  its  authority  would  permit.  The  practical  conse- 
quences of  these  two  theories  were  exceedingly  different. 

The  question  was,  whether  a  league  was  to  be  established 
instead  of  a  national  Government ;  whether  the  majority  of  the 
States,  instead  of  the  majority  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  Union, 
was  to  give  the  law :  for  every  State,  the  small  as  well  as  the 
great,  would  then  remain  in  the  full  enjoyment  of  its  independ- 
ence, and  enter  the  Union  upon  a  footing  of  perfect  equality. 
If,  however,  the  inhabitants  of  the  United  States  were  to  be 
considered  as  belonging  to  one  and  the  same  nation,  it  would 
be  just  that  the  majority  of  the  citizens  of  the  Union  should 
prescribe  the  law.  Of  course  the  lesser  States  could  not  sub- 
scribe to  the  application  of  this  doctrine  without,  in  fact,  abdi- 
cating their  existence  in  relation  to  the  sovereignty  of  the  Con- 
federation ;  since  they  would  have  passed  from  the  condition 
of  a  co-equal  and  co-legislative  authority  to  that  of  an  insig- 
nificant fraction  of  a  great  people.  But  if  the  former  system 
would  have  invested  them  with  an  excessive  authority,  the  lat- 
ter would  have  annulled  their  influence  altogether.  Under 
these*  circumstances  the  result  was,  that  the  strict  rules  of  logic 
were  evaded,  as  is  usually  the  case  when  interests  are  opposed 
to  arguments.  A  middle  course  was  hit  upon  by  the  legis- 
lators, which  brought  together  by  force  two  systems  theoreti- 
cally irreconcilable. 

The  principle  of  the  independence  of  the  States  prevailed  in 
the  formation  of  the  Senate,  and  that  of  the  sovereignty  of  the 
nation  predominated  in  the  composition  of  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives. It  was  decided  that  each  State  should  send  two 
senators  to  Congress,  and  a  number  of  representatives  pro- 
portioned to  its  population.5*    It  results  from  this  arrangement 


n  Every  ten  years  Congress  fixes  anew 
the  number  of  representatives  which 
each  State  is  to  furnish.  The  total  num- 
ber was  69  in  1789,  and  240  in  1833.  (See 
"  American  Almanac,"  1834,  p.  194.) 
The  Constitution  decided  that  there 
should  not  be  more  than  one  representa- 
tive for  every  30,000  persons  ;   but   no 


minimum  was  fixed  on.  The  Congress 
has  not  thought  fit  to  augment  the 
number  of  representatives  in  proportion 
to  the  increase  of  population.  Tne  first 
Act  which  was  passed  on  the  subject 
(April  14,  1792  ;  see  "  Laws  of  the 
United  States,"  by  Story,  vol.  i.  p. 
23s)   decided  that  there  should  be  one 


^ 


!•: 


lU  ^ 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


tit 


that  the  State  of  New  York  has  at  the  present  day  forty  repre- 
sentatives and  only  two  senators;  the  State  of  Delaware  has 
two  senators  and  only  one  representative;  the  State  of  Dela- 
ware is  therefore  equal  to  the  State  of  New  York  in  the  Senate, 
whilst  the  latter  has  forty  times  the  influence  of  the  former  in 
the  House  of  Representatives.  Thus,  if  the  minority  of  the 
nation  preponderates  in  the  Senate,  it  may  paralyze  the  de- 
cisions of  the  majority  represented  in  the  other  House,  which 
is  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  constitutional  government. 

These  facts  show  how  rare  and  how  difficult  it  is  rationally 
and  logically  to  combine  all  the  several  parts  of  legislation. 
In  the  course  of  time  different  interests  arise,  and  different  prin- 
ciples are  sanctioned  by  the  same  people ;  and  when  a  general 
constitution  is  to  be  established,  these  interests  and  principles 
are  so  many  natural  obstacles  to  the  rigorous  application  of  any 
political  system,  with  all  its  consequences.  The  early  stages 
of  national  existence  are  the  only  periods  at  which  it  is  pos- 
sible to  maintain  the  complete  logic  of  legislation ;  and  when 
we  perceive  a  nation  in  the  enjoyment  of  this  advantage,  before 
V. "  hasten  to  conclude  that  it  is  wise,  we  should  do  well  to  re- 
f  V  .er  that  it  is  young.  When  the  Federal  Constitution  was 
a-ned,  the  interests  of  independence  for  the  separate  States, 
and  the  interest  of  union  for  the  whole  people,  were  the  only 
two  conflicting  interests  which  existed  amongst  the  Anglo- 
Americans,  and  a  compromise  was  necessarily  made  between 
them. 

It  is,  however,  just  to  acknowledge  that  this  part  of  the  Con- 
stitution has  not  hitherto  produced  those  evils  which  might 
have  been  feared.  All  the  States  are  young  and  contiguous ; 
their  custom^s,  their  ideas,  and  their  exigencies  are  not  dissim- 
ilar ;  and  the  differences  which  result  from  th  eir  size  or  inferi- 
ority do  not  suffice  to  set  their  interests  at  variance.  The  small 
States  have  consequently  never  been  induced  to  league  them- 
selves together  in  the  Senate  to  oppose  the  designs  of  the  larger 
ones;  and  indeed  there  is  so  irresistible  an  authority  in  the 
legitimate  expression  of  the  will  of  a  people  :hat  the  Senate 


representative  for  every  33,000  inhabi- 
tants. The  last  Act,  which  was  passed 
in  1832,  fixes  the  proportion  at  one  for 
48,000.  The  population  represented  is 
composed  of  all  the  free  men  and  of 
three-fifths  of  the  slaves. 

[The     last     Act     of     apportionment, 
passed  February  2,  1872,  fixes  the  rep- 


resentation at  one  to  134,684  inhabitants. 
There  are  now  (1875)  283  members  of 
the  lower  House  of  Congress,  and  9 
for  the  States  at  large,  making  in  all 
292  members.  The  old  States  have  of 
course  lost  the  representatives  which 
the  new  States  have  gained. — Trans' 
lalor's  Note.} 


:^i\: 


lid 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


l^^ 


!     I 


could  offer  but  a  feeble  opposition  to  the  vote  of  the  majority  of 
the  House  of  Representatives. 

It  must  not  be  forgotten,  on  the  other  hand,  that  it  was  not 
in  the  power  of  the  American  legislators  to  reduce  to  a  single 
nation  the  people  for  whom  they  were  making  laws.  The  ob- 
ject of  the  Federal  Constitution  was  not  to  destroy  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  States,  but  to  restrain  it.  By  acknowledging 
the  real  authority  of  these  secondary  communities  (and  it  was 
impossible  to  deprive  them  of  it),  they  disavowed  beforehand 
the  habitual  use  of  constraint  in  enforcing  the  decisions  of  the 
majority.  Upon  this  principle  the  introduction  of  the  influ- 
ence of  the  States  into  the  mechanism  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment was  by  no  means  to  be  wondered  at,  since  it  only  attested 
the  existence  of  an  acknowledged  power,  which  was  to  be  hu- 
mored and  not  forcibly  checked. 

A  Further  Difference  Between  the  Senate  and  the   s 
House  of  Representatives  , 

The  Senate  named  by  the  provincial  legislators,  the  Representatives 
by  the  people — Double  election  of  the  former;  single  election  of  the 
latter — Term  of  the  different  offices — Peculiar  functions  of  each 
House. 

The  Senate  not  only  differs  from  the  other  House  in  the 
principle  which  it  represents,  but  also  in  the  mode  of  its  elec- 
tion, in  the  term  for  which  it  is  chosen,  and  in  the  nature  of  its 
functions.  The  House  of  Representatives  is  named  by  the 
people,  the  Senate  by  the  legislators  of  each  State ;  the  former 
is  directly  elected,  the  latter  is  elected  by  an  elected  body ;  the 
term  for  which  the  representatives  are  chosen  is  only  two  years, 
that  of  the  senators  is  six.  The  functions  of  the  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives are  purely  legislative,  and  the  only  share  it  takes 
in  the  judicial  power  is  in  the  impeachment  of  public  officers. 
The  Senate  co-operates  in  the  work  of  legislation,  and  tries 
those  political  offences  which  the  House  of  Representatives 
sub"  Us  to  its  decision.  It  also  acts  as  the  great  executive 
council  of  the  nation ;  the  treaties  which  are  concluded  by  the 
President  must  be  ratified  by  the  Senate,  and  the  appointments 
he  may  make  must  be  definitely  approved  by  the  same  body.o 

0  See   "  The  Federalist,"   Nos.   52-56,  inclusive  ;  Story,  pp.  199-314  ;  Constitu- 
tion of  the  United  States,  sects,  a  and  3. 


ti 


:^^ 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


119 


The  Executive  Power/' 

Dependence  of  the  President — He  is  elective  and  responsible — He  is 
free  to  act  in  his  own  sphere  under  the  inspection,  but  not  under  the 
direction,  of  the  Senate — His  salary  fixed  at  his  entry  into  office — 
Suspensive  veto. 

The  American  legislators  undertook  a  difficult  task  in  at- 
tempting to  create  an  executive  power  dependent  on  the  ma- 
jority of  the  people,  and  nevertheless  sufficiently  strong  to  act 
without  restraint  in  its  own  sphere.  It  was  indispensable  to 
the  maintenance  of  the  republican  form  of  government  that  the 
representative  of  the  executive  power  should  be  subject  to  the 
will  of  the  nation. 

The  President  is  an  elective  magistrate.  His  honor,  his 
property,  his  liberty,  and  his  life  are  the  securities  which  the 
people  has  for  the  temperate  use  of  his  power.  But  in  the  ex- 
ercise of  his  authority  he  cannot  be  said  to  be  perfectly  inde- 
pendent; the  Senate  takes  cognizance  of  his  relations  with 
foreign  powers,  and  of  the  distribution  of  public  appointments, 
so  that  he  can  neither  be  bribed  nor  can  he  employ  the  means 
of  corruption.  The  legislators  of  the  Union  acknowledged  that 
the  executive  power  would  be  incompetent  to  fulfil  its  task  with 
dignity  and  utility,  unless  it  enjoyed  a  greater  degree  of  sta- 
bility and  of  strength  than  had  been  granted  to  it  in  the  separate 
States. 

The  President  is  chosen  for  four  years,  and  he  may  be  re- 
elected ;  so  that  the  chances  of  a  prolonged  administration  may 
inspire  him  with  hopeful  undertakings  for  the  public  good, 
and  with  the  means  of  carrying  them  into  execution.  The 
President  was  made  the  sole  representative  of  the  executive 
power  of  the  Union,  and  care  was  taken  not  to  render  his  de- 
cisions subordinate  to  the  vote  of  a  council — a  dangerous  meas- 
ure, which  tends  at  the  same  time  to  clog  the  action  of  the 
Government  and  to  diminish  i*^3  responsibility.  The  Senate 
has  the  right  of  annulling  certain  acts  of  the  President ;  but  it 
cannot  compel  him  to  take  any  steps,  nor  does  it  participate  in 
the  exercise  of  the  executive  power. 

The  action  of  the  legislature  oii  the  executive  power  may  be 
direct;  and  we  have  just  shown  that  the  Americans  carefully 


p  See  "The  Federalist."  Nos.   67-77  ; 
Constitution  of  the  United  States,  art. 


2  ;   Story,   p.   31s,   pp.   615-780  ;   Kent's 
"  Commentaries,"  p.  255. 


'  A 

i 


a> 


W 


h  !■  r 


'M\\^k: 


lao 


DE  TOCQUEVTLLE 


obviated  this  influence ;  but  it  may,  on  the  other  hand,  be  indi- 
rect. Public  assemblies  which  have  the  power  of  depriving 
an  officer  of  state  of  his  salary  encroach  upon  his  independence ; 
and  as  they  are  free  to  make  the  laws,  it  is  to  be  feared  lest  they 
should  gradually  appropriate  to  themselves  a  portion  of  that 
authority  which  the  Constitution  had  vested  in  his  hands.  This 
dependence  of  the  executive  power  is  one  of  the  defects  inher- 
ent in  republican  constitutions.  The  Americans  have  not  been 
able  to  counteract  the  tendency  which  legislative  assemblies 
have  to  get  possession  of  the  government,  but  they  have  ren- 
dered this  propensity  less  irresistible.  The  salary  of  the  Presi- 
vbnt  is  fixed,  at  the  time  of  his  entering  upon  office,  for  the 
whole  period  of  his  magistracy.  The  President  is,  moreover, 
provided  with  a  suspensive  veto,  which  allows  him  to  oppose 
the  passing  of  such  laws  as  might  destroy  the  portion  of  inde- 
pendence which  the  Constitution  awards  him.  The  struggle 
between  the  President  and  the  legislature  must  always  be  an 
unequal  one,  since  the  latter  is  certain  of  bearing  down  all  re- 
sistance by  persevering  in  its  plans;  but  the  suspensive  veto 
forces  it  at  least  to  reconsider  the  matter,  and,  if  the  motion  be 
persisted  in,  it  must  then  be  backed  by  a  majority  of  two-thirds 
of  the  whole  house.  The  veto  is,  in  fact,  a  sort  of  appeal  to  the 
people.  The  executive  power,  which,  without  this  security, 
might  have  been  secretly  oppressed,  adopts  this  means  of  plead- 
ing its  cause  and  stating  its  motives.  But  if  the  legislature  is 
'^ertain  of  overpowering  all  resistance  by  persevering  in  its 
plans,  I  reply,  that  in  the  constitutions  of  all  nations,  of  what- 
ever kind  they  may  be,  a  certain  point  exists  at  which  the  legis- 
lator is  obliged  to  have  recourse  to  the  good  sense  and  the 
virtu*"  of  his  fellow-citizens.  This  point  is  more  prominent  and 
more  Ji  coverable  in  republics,  whilst  it  is  more  remote  and 
more  carefully  concealed  in  monarchies,  but  it  always  exists 
somewhere.  There  is  no  country  in  the  world  in  which  every- 
thing can  be  provided  for  by  the  laws,  or  in  which  political 
institutions  can  prove  a  substitute  for  common  sense  and  pub- 
lic morality. 


M 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


lai 


>  .11 


Differences  Between  the  Position  of  the  President  of 
THE  United  States  and  that  of  a  Constitutional  King 
OF  France 

Executive  power  in  the  Northern  States  as  limited  and  as  partial  as  the 
supremacy  which  it  represents — Executive  power  in  France  as  uni- 
versal as  the  supremacy  it  represents — The  King  a  branch  of  the 
legislature — The  President  the  mere  executor  of  the  law — Other 
differences  resulting  from  the  duration  of  the  two  powers — The 
President  checked  in  the  exercise  of  the  executive  authority — The 
King  independent  in  its  exercise — Notwithstanding  these  discrep- 
ancies France  is  more  akin  to  a  republic  than  the  Union  to  a  mon- 
archy— Comparison  of  the  number  of  public  ol  .<.)  lepending  up- 
on the  executive  power  in  the  two  countries. 

The  executive  power  has  so  important  an  influence  on  the 
destinies  of  nations  that  I  am  inclined  to  pause  for  an  instant 
at  this  portion  of  my  subject,  in  order  more  clearly  to  explain 
the  part  it  sustains  in  America.  In  order  to  form  an  accurate 
idea  of  the  position  of  the  President  of  the  United  States,  it  may 
not  be  irrelevant  to  compare  it  to  that  of  one  of  the  constitu- 
tional kings  of  Europe.  In  this  comparison  I  shall  pay  but 
little  attention  to  the  external  signs  of  power,  which  are  more 
apt  to  deceive  the  eye  of  the  observer  than  to  guide  his  re- 
searches. When  a  monarchy  is  being  gradually  transformed 
into  a  republic,  the  executive  power  retains  the  titles,  the  hon- 
ors, the  etiquette,  and  even  the  funds  of  royalty  long  after  its 
authority  has  disappeared.  The  English,  after  having  cut  ofl 
the  head  of  one  king  and  expelled  another  from  his  throne,  were 
accustomed  to  accost  the  successor  of  those  princes  upon  their 
knees.  On  the  other  hand,  when  a  republic  falls  under  the 
sway  of  a  single  individual,  the  demeanor  of  the  sovereign  is 
simple  and  unpretending,  as  if  his  authority  was  not  yet  para- 
mount. When  the  emperors  exercised  an  unlimited  control 
over  the  fortunes  and  the  lives  of  their  fellow-citizens,  it  was 
customary  to  call  them  Caesar  in  conversation,  and  they  were 
in  the  habit  of  supping  without  formality  at  their  friends' 
houses.     It  is  therefore  necessary  to  look  below  the  surface. 

The  sovereignty  of  the  United  States  is  shared  between  the 
Union  and  the  States,  whilst  in  France  it  is  undivided  and 
compact :  hence  arises  the  first  and  the  most  notable  difference 
which  exists  between  the  President  of  the  United  States  and 
the  King  of  France.     In  the  United  States  the  executive  power 


^1 


]  il 


V 


fjiif! 


J 


^  U   'It 

I     I    ill 


122 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


is  as  limited  and  partial  as  the  sovereignty  of  the  Union  in 
whose  name  it  acts ;  in  France  it  is  as  universal  as  the  authority 
of  the  State.  The  Americans  havc  ,  federal  and  the  French  a 
national  Government. 

This  cause  of  inferiority  results  from  the  nature  of  things, 
but  it  is  not  the  only  onr ;  the  second  in  importance  is  as  fol- 
lows: Sovereignty  ma}  be  defined  to  be  the  righ*^^  of  making 
laws:  in  France,  the  King  really  e  -crcises  a  portion  of  the 
sovereign  power,  since  the  laws  have  no  weight  till  he  has  given 
his  assent  to  them ;  he  is,  moreover,  the  executor  of  all  they 
ordain.  The  President  is  also  the  executor  of  the  laws,  but  he 
does  not  really  co-operate  in  their  formation,  since  the  refusal 
of  his  assent  does  not  annul  them.  He  is  therefore  merely  to 
be  considered  as  the  agent  of  the  sovereign  power.  But  not 
only  does  the  King  of  France  exercise  a  portion  of  the  sov- 
ereign power,  he  also  contributes  to  the  nomination  of  the 
legislature,  which  exercises  the  other  portion.  He  has  the 
privilege  of  appointing  the  members  of  one  chamber,  and  of 
dissolving  the  other  at  his  pleasure ;  whereas  the  President  of 
the  United  States  has  no  share  in  the  formation  of  the  legis- 
lative body,  and  cannot  dissolve  any  part  of  it.  The  King  has 
the  same  right  of  bringing  forward  measures  as  the  Chambers ; 
a  right  which  the  President  does  not  possess.  The  King  is 
represented  in  each  assembly  by  his  ministers,  who  explain  his 
intentions,  support  his  opinions,  and  maintain  the  principles 
of  the  Government.  The  President  and  his  ministers  are  alike 
excluded  from  Congress ;  so  that  his  influence  and  his  opinions 
can  only  penetrate  indirectly  into  that  great  body.  The  King 
of  France  is  therefore  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  legislature, 
which  can  no  more  act  without  him  than  he  can  without  it. 
The  President  exercises  an  authority  inferior  to,  and  depending 
upon,  that  of  the  legislature. 

Even  in  the  exercise  of  the  executive  power,  properly  so 
called — the  point  upon  which  his  position  seems  to  be  most 
analogous  to  that  of  the  King  of  France — the  President  labors 
under  several  causes  of  inferiority.  The  authority  of  the  King, 
in  France,  has,  in  the  first  place,  the  advantage  of  duration  over 
that  of  the  President,  and  durability  is  one  of  the  chief  elements 
of  strength ;  nothing  is  either  loved  or  feared  but  what  is  likely 
to  endure.  The  President  of  the  United  States  is  a  magistrate 
elected  for  four  years;  the  King,  in  France,  is  an  hereditary 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


1*3 


sovereign.  In  the  exercise  of  the  executive  power  the  Presi- 
dent of  the  United  States  is  constantly  subject  to  a  jealous 
scrutiny.  He  may  make,  but  he  cannot  conclude,  a  treaty ;  he 
may  designate,  but  he  cannot  appoint,  a  public  officer.5  The 
King  of  France  is  absolute  within  the  Hmits  of  his  authority. 
The  President  of  the  United  States  is  responsible  for  his  ac- 
tions ;  but  the  person  of  the  King  is  declared  inviolable  by  the 
French  Charter.*" 

Nevertheless,  the  supremacy  of  public  opinion  is  no  less 
above  the  head  of  the  one  than  of  the  other.  This  power  is 
less  definite,  less  evident,  and  less  sanctioned  by  the  laws  in 
F'rance  than  in  America,  but  in  fact  it  exists.  In  America,  it 
acts  by  elections  and  decrees ;  in  France  it  proceeds  by  revolu- 
tions ;  but  notwithstanding  the  different  constitutions  of  these 
two  countries,  public  opinion  is  the  predominant  authority  in 
both  of  them.  The  fundamental  principle  of  legislation — a 
principle  essentially  republican — is  the  same  in  both  countries, 
although  its  consequences  may  be  different,  and  its  results 
more  or  less  extensive.  Whence  I  am  led  to  conclude  that 
France  with  its  King  is  nearer  akin  to  a  republic  than  the 
Union  with  its  President  is  to  a  monarchy. 

In  what  I  have  been  saying  I  have  only  touched  upon  the 
main  points  of  distinction ;  and  if  I  could  have  entered  into  de- 
tails, the  contrast  would  have  been  rendered  still  more  strik- 
ing. 

I  have  remarked  that  the  authority  of  the  President  in  the 
United  States  is  only  exercised  within  the  limits  of  a  partial 
sovereignty,  whilst  that  of  the  King  in  France  is  undivided. 
I  might  have  gone  on  to  show  that  the  power  of  the  King's 
government  in  France  exceeds  its  natural  limits,  however  ex- 
tensive they  may  be,  and  penetrates  in  a  thousand  diflferent 
ways  into  the  administration  oi  private  interests.  Amongst  the 
examples  of  this  influence  may  be  quoted  that  which  results 
from  the  great  number  of  public  functionaries,  who  all  derive 
their  appointments  from  the  Government.    This  number  now 


/If  1 


/ 


'    •'!«' 


\m^ 


(fl 


I 


q  The  Constitution  had  left  it  doubtful 
whether  the  President  was  obliged  to 
consult  the  Senate  in  the  removal  as  well 
as  in  the  appointment  of  Federal  officers. 
"  The  Federalist  "  (No.  77)  seemed  to 
establish  the  affirmative  ;  but  in  1789 
Confrress  formally  decided  that,  as  the 
President  was  responsible  for  his  ac- 
tions, he  ought  not  to  be  forced  to  em- 


ploy agents  who  had  forfeited  his 
esteem.  See  Ken''s  "Commentaries," 
vol.  i.  jj.  289. 

r  [This  comparison  applied  to  the 
Constitutional  King  of  France  and  to 
the  powers  he  held  under  the  Charter 
of  1830.  till  the  overthrow  of  the  mon- 
archy in  1%.!^.— Translator' s  Noie.i 


'\ 


124 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


exceeds  all  previous  limits;  it  amounts  to  138,000*  nomina- 
tions, each  of  which  may  be  considered  as  an  element  of  power. 
The  President  of  the  United  States  has  not  the  exclusive  right 
of  making  any  public  appointments,  and  their  whole  number 
scarcely  exceeds  12,000.* 


I        ! 


i 


I, 


H 


■J 


Accidental  Causes  which  may  Increase  the  Influence 
OF  THE  Executive  Government 

External  security  of  the  Union — Army  of  six  thousand  men — Few  ships 
— The  President  has  no  opportunity  of  exercising  his  great  pre- 
rogatives— In  the  prerogatives  he  exercises  he  is  weak. 

If  the  executive  government  is  feebler  in  America  than  in 
France,  the  cause  is  more  attributable  to  the  circumstances 
than  to  the  laws  of  the  country. 

It  is  chiefly  in  its  foreign  relations  that  the  executive  power 
of  a  nation  is  called  upon  to  exert  its  skill  and  its  vigor.  If  the 
existence  of  the  Union  were  perpetually  threatened,  and  if  its 
chief  interests  were  in  daily  connection  with  those  of  other 
powerful  nations,  the  executive  government  would  assume  an 
increased  importance  in  proportion  to  the  measures  expected 
of  it,  and  those  which  it  would  carry  into  effect.  The  President 
of  the  United  States  is  the  commander-in-chief  of  the  army,  but 
of  an  army  composed  of  only  six  thousand  men ;  he  commands 
the  fleet,  but  the  fleet  reckons  but  few  sail;  he  conducts  the 
foreign  relations  of  the  Union,  but  the  United  States  are  a  na- 
tion without  neighbors.  Separated  from  the  rest  of  the  world 
by  the  ocean,  and  too  weak  as  yet  to  aim  at  the  dominion  of  the 
seas,  they  have  no  enemies,  and  their  interests  rarely  come  into 
contact  with  those  of  any  other  nation  of  the  globe. 

The  practical  part  of  a  Government  must  not  be  judged  by 
the  theory  of  its  constitution.  The  President  of  the  United 
States  is  in  the  possession  of  almost  royal  prerogatives,  which 
he  has  no  opportunity  of  exercising ;  and  those  privileges  '"hich 
he  can  at  present  use  are  very  circumscribed.    The  law    .'dlow 


i  The  sums  annually  paid  by  the 
State  to  these  officers  amount  to  200,- 
000,000  fr.  ($40,000,000). 

/  This  number  is  extracted  from  the 
"  National  Calendar "  for  1833.  The 
"  National  Calendar "  is  an  American 
almanac  which  contains  the  names  of 
all  the  Federal  officers.  It  results  from 
this  comparison  that  the  King  of  France 
has  eleven  times  as  many  places  at  his 


disposal  as  the  President,  although  the 
population  of  France  is  not  much  more 
than  double  that  of  the  Union. 

[I  ha  re  not  the  means  of  ascertaining 
the  number  of  appointments  now  at  the 
disposal  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  but  his  patronage  and  the  abuse 
of  it  have  largely  increased  since  1833. 
— Translator's  J^iote,  1875.] 


v    \i 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


laS 


him  to  possess  a  degree  of  influence  which  circumstances  do 
not  permit  him  to  employ. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  great  strength  of  the  royal  prero- 
gative in  France  arises  from  circumstances  far  more  than  from 
the  laws.  There  the  executive  government  is  constantly 
struggling  against  prodigious  obstacles,  and  exerting  all  its 
energies  to  repress  them ;  so  that  it  increases  by  the  extent  of 
its  achievements,  and  by  the  importance  of  the  events  it  con- 
trols, without  modifying  its  constitution.  If  the  laws  had  made 
it  as  feeble  and  as  circumscribed  as  it  is  in  the  Union,  its  influ- 
ence would  very  soon  become  still  more  preponderant. 

Why  the  President  of  the  United  States  does  not  Re- 
quire THE  Majority  of  the  Two  Houses  in  Order  to 
Carry  on  the  Government 

It  is  an  established  axiom  in  Europe  that  a  constitutional 
King  cannot  persevere  in  a  system  of  government  which  is  op- 
posed by  the  two  other  branches  of  the  legislature.  But  sev- 
eral Presidents  of  the  United  States  have  been  known  to  lose 
the  majority  in  the  legislative  body  without  being  obliged  to 
abandon  the  supreme  power,  and  without  inflicting  a  serious 
evil  upon  society.  I  have  heard  this  fact  quoted  as  an  instance 
of  the  independence  and  the  power  of  the  executive  govern- 
ment in  America:  a  moment's  reflection  will  convince  us,  on 
the  contrary,  that  it  is  a  proof  of  its  extreme  weakness. 

A  King  in  Europe  requires  the  support  of  the  legislature  to 
enable  him  to  perform  the  duties  imposed  upon  him  by  the 
Constitution,  because  those  duties  are  enormous.  A  consti- 
tutional King  in  Europe  is  not  merely  the  executor  of  the  law, 
but  the  execution  of  its  provisions  devolves  so  completely  upon 
him  that  he  has  the  power  of  paralyzing  its  influence  if  it  op- 
poses his  designs.  He  requires  the  assistance  of  the  legislative 
assemblies  to  make  the  law,  but  those  assemblies  stand  in  need 
of  his  aid  to  execute  it:  these  two  authorities  cannot  subsist 
without  each  other,  and  the  mechanism  of  government  is 
stopped  as  soon  as  they  are  at  variance. 

In  America  the  President  cannot  prevent  any  law  from  being 
passed,  nor  can  lie  evade  the  obligation  of  enforcing  it.  His 
sincere  and  zealous  co-operation  is  no  doubt  useful,  but  it  is 
not  indispensable,  in  the  carrying  on  of  public  affairs.    All  his 


|I!M 


i  c  1  a 


136 


DE  TOCQUEVITXE 


I' 


k     U I 


I! : 


MjJ 


J  ^< 


important  acts  arc  (lirectl>  or  indirectly  submitted  to  the  legis- 
lature, and  of  his  own  fric  authority  he  can  do  but  little.  It  is 
therefore  his  weakness,  and  not  his  power,  which  enables  him 
to  remain  in  opposition  to  Congress.  In  Europe,  harmony 
must  reign  between  the  Crown  and  the  other  branches  of  the 
legislature,  because  a  collision  between  them  may  prove 
serious ;  in  America,  this  harmony  is  not  indispensable,  because 
such  a  collision  is  impossible. 

Election  of  the  President 

Dangers  of  the  elective  system  increase  in  proportion  to  the  extent  of 
the  prerogative — This  system  possible  in  America  because  no 
powerful  executive  authority  is  required — What  circumstances  are 
favorable  to  the  elective  system — Why  the  election  of  the  President 
does  not  cause  a  deviation  from  the  principles  of  the  Government- 
Influence  of  the  election  of  the  President  on  secondary  function^ 
aries. 

The  dangers  of  the  system  of  election  applied  to  the  head  of 
the  executive  government  of  a  great  people  have  been  suffi- 
ciently exemplified  by  experience  and  by  history,  and  the  re- 
marks I  am  about  to  make  refer  to  America  alone.  These 
dangers  may  be  more  or  less  formidable  in  proportion  to  the 
place  which  the  executive  power  occupies,  and  to  the  import- 
ance it  possesses  in  the  State ;  and  they  may  vary  according  to 
the  mode  of  election  and  the  circumstances  in  which  the  electors 
are  placed.  The  most  weighty  argument  against  the  election 
of  a  chief  magistrate  is,  that  it  ofifers  so  splendid  a  lure  to  pri- 
vate ambition,  and  is  so  apt  to  inflame  men  in  the  pursuit  of 
power,  that  when  legitimate  means  are  wanting  force  may  not 
unfrequently  seize  what  right  denied. 

It  is  clear  that  the  greater  the  privileges  of  the  executive 
authority  are,  the  greater  is  the  temptation ;  the  more  the  am- 
bition of  the  candidates  is  excited,  the  more  warmly  are  their 
interests  espoused  by  a  throng  of  partisans  who  hope  to  share 
the  power  when  their  patron  has  won  the  prize.  The  dangers 
of  the  elective  system  increase,  therefore,  in  the  exact  ratio  of 
the  influence  exercised  by  the  executive  power  in  the  affairs  of 
State.  The  revolutions  of  Poland  were  not  solely  attributable 
to  the  elective  system  in  general,  but  to  the  fact  that  the  elected 
monarch  was  the  sovereign  of  a  powerful  kingdom.  Before  we 
can  discuss  the  absolute  advantages  of  the  elective  system  we 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


137 


must  make  preliminary  inquiries  as  to  whether  the  geographical 
position,  the  laws,  the  habits,  the  manners,  and  the  opinions  of 
the  people  amonj(st  whom  it  is  to  be  introduced  will  admit  of 
the  establishment  of  a  weak  and  dependent  executive  govern- 
ment ;  for  to  attempt  to  render  the  representative  of  the  State 
a  powerful  sovereign,  and  at  the  same  time  elective,  is,  in  my 
opinion,  to  entertain  two  incompatible  designs.  To  reduce 
hereditary  royalty  to  the  condition  of  an  elective  authority,  the 
only  means  that  I  am  acquainted  with  are  to  circumscribe  its 
sphere  of  action  beforehand,  gradually  to  diminish  its  prero- 
gatives, and  to  accustom  the  people  to  live  without  its  protec- 
tion. Nothing,  however,  is  further  from  the  designs  of  the  re- 
publicans of  Europe  than  this  course:  as  many  of  them  owe 
their  hatred  of  tyranny  to  the  sufferings  which  they  have  per- 
sonally undergone,  it  is  oppression,  and  not  tV:;  extent  of  the 
executive  power,  which  excites  their  hostility,  and  they  attack 
the  former  without  perceiving  how  nearly  it  is  conne.^ed  V/ith 
ihe  latter. 

Hitherto  no  citizen  has  shown  any  disposition  to  expose  his 
honor  and  his  life  in  order  to  become  the  President  of  the 
United  States;  because  the  power  of  that  office  is  temr ^rary, 
limited,  and  subordinate.  The  prize  of  fortune  must  h  •  ?;;  eat 
to  encourage  adventurers  in  so  desperate  a  game.  Nc  candi- 
date has  as  yet  been  able  to  arouse  the  dangerous  enthusiasm  or 
the  passionate  sympathies  of  the  people  in  his  favor,  for  the 
very  simple  reason  that  when  he  is  at  the  head  of  the  Govern- 
ment he  has  but  little  power,  but  little  wealth,  and  but  little 
glory  to  share  amongst  his  friends;  and  his  influence  in  the 
State  is  too  small  for  the  success  or  the  ruin  of  a  faction  to  de- 
pend upon  the  elevation  of  an  individual  to  power. 

The  great  advantage  of  hereditary  monarchies  is,  that  as 
the  private  interest  of  a  family  is  always  intimately  connected 
with  the  interests  of  the  State,  the  executive  government  is 
never  suspended  for  a  single  instant ;  and  i*  ":>'  :if¥airs  of  a  mon- 
archy are  not  better  conducted  than  those  of  a  republic,  at  least 
there  is  always  some  one  to  conduct  them,  well  or  ill,  according 
to  his  capacity.  In  elective  States,  on  ihe  contrary,  the  wheels 
of  government  cease  to  act,  as  it  w^ro,  of  their  own  accord  at 
the  approach  of  an  election,  and  even  for  some  time  previous  to 
that  event.  The  laws  may  indeed  accelerate  the  operation  of 
the  election,  which  may  be  conducted  with  such  simplicity  and 


n 


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138 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


■I     rl. 


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K  ,  ti 


*   i 


rapidity  that  the  seat  of  power  will  never  be  left  vacant ;  but, 
notwithstanding  these  precautions,  a  break  necessarily  occurs 
in  the  minds  of  the  people. 

At  the  approach  of  an  election  the  head  of  the  executive  gov- 
ernment is  wholly  occupied  by  the  coming  struggle ;  his  future 
plans  are  doubtful ;  he  can  undertake  nothing  new,  and  he  will 
only  prosecute  with  indifference  those  designs  which  another 
will  perhaps  terminate.  "  I  am  so  near  the  time  of  my  retire- 
ment from  office,"  said  President  Jefferson  on  the  21st  of  Janu- 
ary, 1809  (six  weeks  before  the  election),  "  that  I  feel  no  pas- 
sion, I  take  no  part,  I  express  no  sentiment.  It  appears  to  me 
just  to  leave  to  my  successor  the  commencement  of  those 
measures  which  he  will  have  to  prosecute,  and  for  which  he  will 
be  responsible." 

On  the  other  hand,  the  eyes  of  the  nation  are  centred  on  a 
single  point ;  all  are  watching  the  gradual  birth  of  so  import- 
ant an  event.  The  wider  the  influence  of  the  executive  power 
extends,  the  greater  and  the  more  necessary  is  its  constant  ac- 
tion, the  more  fatal  is  the  term  of  suspense ;  and  a  nation  which 
is  accustomed  to  the  government,  or,  still  more,  one  used  to  the 
administrative  protection  of  a  powerful  executive  authority 
would  be  infallibly  convulsed  by  an  election  of  this  kind.  In 
the  United  States  the  action  of  the  Government  may  be 
slackened  with  impunity,  because  it  is  always  weak  and  circum- 
scribed." 

One  of  the  principal  vices  of  the  elective  system  is  that  it  al- 
ways introduces  a  certain  degree  of  instability  into  the  internal 
and  external  policy  of  the  State.  But  this  disadvantage  is  less 
sensibly  felt  if  the  share  of  power  vested  in  the  elected  magis- 
trate is  small.  In  Rome  the  principles  of  the  Government 
underwent  no  variation,  although  the  Consuls  were  changed 
every  year,  because  the  Senate,  which  was  an  hereditary  as- 
sembly, possessed  the  directing  authority.  If  the  elective  sys- 
tem were  adopted  in  Europe,  the  condition  of  most  of  the  mon- 
archical States  would  be  changed  at  every  new  election.  In 
America  the  President  exercises  a  certain  influence  on  State 
affairs,   but   he  does  not  conduct  them;   the  preponderating 


) 


u  (This,  however,  may  be  a  great 
danger.  The  period  during  which  Mr. 
Buchanan  retained  office,  after  the  elec- 
tion of  Mr.  Lincoln,  from  November, 
i860,  to  March,  1861,  was  that  which  en- 
abled the  seceding  States  of  the  South 


to  complete  their  preparations  for  the 
Civil  War,  and  the  Executive  Govern- 
ment was  paralyzed.  No  greater  evil 
could  befall  a  nation.  —  Translator's 
Nole.1 


hr 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


129 


power  is  vested  in  the  representatives  of  the  whole  nation.  The 
poHtical  maxims  of  the  country  depend  therefore  on  the  mass 
of  the  people,  not  on  the  President  alone;  and  consequently 
in  America  the  elective  system  has  no  very  prejudicial  influence 
on  the  fixed  principles  of  the  Government.  But  the  want  of 
fixed  principles  is  an  evil  so  inherent  in  the  elective  system  that 
it  is  still  extremely  perceptible  in  the  narrow  sphere  to  which 
the  authority  of  the  President  extends. 

The  Americans  have  admitted  that  the  head  of  the  executive 
power,  who  has  to  bear  the  whole  responsibility  of  the  duties  he 
is  called  upon  to  fulfil,  ought  to  be  empowered  to  choose  his  own 
agents,  and  to  remove  them  at  pleasure :  the  legislative  bodies 
watch  the  conduct  of  the  President  more  than  they  direct  it. 
The  consequence  of  this  arrangement  is,  that  at  every  new  elec- 
tion the  fate  of  all  the  Federal  public  officers  is  in  suspense.  Mr. 
Quincy  Adams,  on  his  entry  into  office,  discharged  the  major- 
ity of  the  individuals  who  had  been  appointed  by  his  predeces- 
sor :  and  I  am  not  aware  that  General  Jackson  allowed  a  single 
removable  functionary  employed  in  the  Federal  service  to  re- 
tain his  place  beyond  the  first  year  which  succeeded  his  election. 
It  is  sometimes  made  a  subject  of  complaint  that  in  the  consti- 
tutional monarchies  of  Europe  the  fate  of  the  humbler  servants 
of  an  Administration  depends  upon  that  of  the  Ministers.  But 
in  elective  Governments  this  evil  is  far  greater.  In  a  consti- 
tutional monarchy  successive  ministries  are  rapidly  formed; 
but  as  the  principal  representative  of  the  executive  power  does 
not  change,  the  spirit  of  innovation  is  kept  within  bounds ;  the 
changes  which  take  place  are  in  the  details  rather  than  in  the 
principles  of  the  administrative  system ;  but  to  substitute  one 
system  for  another,  as  is  done  In  America  every  four  years,  by 
law,  is  to  cause  a  sort  of  revolution.  As  to  the  misfortunes 
which  may  fall  upon  individuals  in  consequence  of  this  state  of 
things,  it  must  be  allowed  that  the  uncertain  situation  of  the 
public  officers  is  less  fraught  with  evil  consequences  in  America 
than  elsewhere.  It  is  so  easy  to  acquire  an  independent  posi- 
tion in  the  United  States  that  the  public  officer  who  loses  his 
place  may  be  deprived  of  the  comforts  of  life,  but  not  of  the 
means  of  subsistence. 

I  remarked  at  the  beginning  of  this  chapter  that  the  dangers 
of  the  elective  system  applied  to  the  head  of  the  State  are  aug- 
mented or  decreased  by  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  the  people 
Vol.  I.-9 


!^ 


¥'. 


r  si* 


130 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


which  adopts  it.  However  the  functions  of  the  executive  power 
may  be  restricted,  it  must  always  exercise  a  great  influence  upon 
the  foreign  policy  of  the  country,  for  a  negotiation  cannot  be 
opened  or  successfully  carried  on  otherwise  than  by  a  single 
agent.  The  more  precarious  and  the  more  perilous  the  posi- 
tion of  a  people  becomes,  the  more  absolute  is  the  want  of  a 
fixed  and  consistent  external  policy,  and  the  more  dangerous 
does  the  elective  system  of  the  Chief  Magistrate  become.  The 
policy  of  the  Americans  in  relation  to  the  whole  world  is  ex- 
ceedingly simple;  for  it  may  almost  be  said  that  no  country 
stands  in  need  of  them,  nor  do  they  require  the  co-operation  of 
any  other  people.  Their  independence  is  never  threatened.  In 
their  present  condition,  therefore,  the  functions  of  the  executive 
power  are  no  less  limited  by  circumstances  than  by  the  laws ; 
and  the  President  may  frequently  change  his  line  of  policy  with- 
out involving  the  State  in  difficulty  or  destruction. 

Whatever  the  prerogatives  of  the  executive  power  may  be, 
the  period  which  immediately  precedes  an  election  and  the  mo- 
ment of  its  duration  must  always  be  considered  as  a  national 
crisis,  which  is  perilous  in  proportion  to  the  internal  embarrass- 
ments and  the  external  dangers  of  the  country.  Few  of  the  na- 
tions of  Europe  could  escape  the  calamities  of  anarchy  or  of 
conquest  every  time  they  might  have  to  elect  a  new  sovereign. 
In  America  society  is  so  constituted  that  it  can  stand  without 
assistance  upon  its  own  basis ;  nothing  is  to  be  feared  from  the 
pressure  of  external  dangers,  and  the  election  of  the  President 
is  a  cause  of  agitation,  but  not  of  ruin. 


Mode  of  Election 

Skill  of  the  American  legislators  shown  in  the  mode  of  election  adopted 
by  them — Creation  of  a  special  electoral  body — Separate  votes  of 
these  electors — Case  in  which  the  House  of  Representatives  is  called 
upon  to  choose  the  President — Results  of  the  twelve  elections  which 
have  taken  place  since  the  Constitution  has  been  established. 

Besides  the  dangers  which  are  inherent  in  the  system,  many 
other  difficulties  may  arise  from  the  mode  of  election,  which 
may  be  obviated  by  the  precaution  of  the  legislator.  When  a 
people  met  in  arms  on  some  public  spot  to  choose  its  head,  it 
was  exposed  to  all  the  chances  of  civil  war  resulting  from  so 
martial  a  mode  of  proceeding,  besides  the  dangers  of  the  elective 
system  in  itself.   The  Polish  laws,  which  subjected  the  election 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


131 


of  the  sovereign  to  the  veto  of  a  single  individual,  suggested 
the  murder  of  that  individual  or  prepared  the  way  to  anarchy. 

In  the  exariination  of  the  institutions  and  the  political  as 
well  as  social  coiidition  of  the  United  States,  we  are  struck  by 
the  admirable  harmony  of  the  gifts  of  fortune  and  the  efforts 
of  man.  The  nation  possessed  two  of  the  main  causes  of  in- 
ternal peace ;  it  was  a  new  country,  but  it  was  inhabited  by  a 
people  grown  old  in  the  exercise  of  freedom.  America  had  no 
hostile  neighbors  to  dread ;  and  the  American  legislators,  prof- 
iting by  these  favorable  circumstances,  created  a  weak  and 
subordinate  executive  power  which  could  without  danger  be 
made  elective. 

It  then  only  remained  for  them  to  choose  the  least  dangerous 
of  the  various  modes  of  election;  and  the  rules  which  they 
laid  down  upon  this  point  admirably  correspond  to  the  secur- 
ities which  the  physical  and  political  constitution  of  the  country 
already  afforded.  Their  object  was  to  find  the  mode  of  election 
which  would  best  express  the  choice  of  the  people  with  the 
least  possible  excitement  and  suspense.  It  was  admitted  in 
the  first  place  that  the  simple  majority  should  be  decisive ;  but 
the  difficulty  was  to  obtain  this  majority  without  an  interval 
of  delay  which  it  was  most  important  to  avoid.  It  rarely  hap- 
pens that  an  individual  can  at  once  collect  the  majority  of  the 
suffrages  of  a  great  people ;  and  this  difficulty  is  enhanced  in 
a  republic  of  confederate  States,  where  local  influences  are  apt 
to  preponderate.  The  means  by  which  it  was  proposed  to  ob- 
viate this  second  obstacle  was  to  delegate  the  electoral  powers 
of  the  nation  to  a  body  of  representatives.  This  mode  of  elec- 
tion rendered  a  majority  more  probable;  for  the  fewer  the 
electors  are,  the  greater  is  the  chance  of  their  coming  to  a 
final  decision.  It  also  offered  an  additional  probability  of  a 
judicious  choice.  It  then  remained  to  be  decided  whether  this 
right  of  election  was  to  be  entrusted  to  a  legislative  body,  the 
habitual  representative  assembly  of  the  nation,  or  whether  an 
electoral  assembly  should  be  formed  for  the  express  purpose  of 
proceeding  to  the  nomination  of  a  President.  The  Americans 
chose  the  latter  alternative,  from  a  belief  that  the  individuals 
who  were  returned  to  make  the  laws  were  incompetent  to  rep- 
resent the  wishes  of  the  nation  in  the  election  of  its  chief 
magistrate ;  and  that,  as  they  are  chosen  for  more  than  a  year, 
the  constituency  they  represent  might  have  changed  its  opinion 


m 


f; 


f 


tja 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


in  that  time.  It  was  thought  that  if  the  legislature  was  em- 
powered to  elect  the  head  of  the  executive  power,  its  members 
would,  for  some  time  before  the  election,  be  exposed  to  the 
manoeuvres  of  corruption  and  the  tricks  of  intrigue;  whereas 
the  special  electors  would,  like  a  jury,  remain  mixed  up  with 
the  crowd  till  the  day  of  action,  when  they  would  appear  for  the 
sole  purpose  of  giving  their  votes. 

It  was  therefore  established  that  every  State  should  name 
a  certain  number  of  electors,?'  who  in  their  turn  should  elect 
the  President ;  and  as  it  had  been  observed  that  the  assemblies 
to  which  the  choice  of  a  chief  magistrate  had  been  entrusted  in 
elective  countries  inevitably  became  the  centres  of  passion  and 
of  cabal ;  that  they  sometimes  usurped  an  authority  which  did 
not  belong  to  them ;  and  that  their  proceedings,  or  the  uncer- 
tainty which  resulted  from  them,  were  sometimes  prolonged 
so  much  as  to  endanger  the  welfare  of  the  State,  it  was  de- 
termined that  the  electors  should  all  vote  upon  the  same  day, 
without  being  convoked  to  the  same  place.w  This  double 
election  rendered  a  majority  probable,  though  not  certain ;  for 
it  was  possible  that  as  many  differences  might  exist  between 
the  electors  as  between  their  constituents.  In  this  case  it  was 
necessary  to  have  recourse  to  one  of  three  measures ;  either  to 
appoint  new  electors,  or  to  consult  a  second  time  those  already 
appointed,  or  to  defer  the  election  to  an^^iher  authority.  The 
first  two  of  these  alternatives,  independently  of  the  uncertainty 
of  their  results,  were  likely  to  delay  the  final  decision,  and  to 
perpetuate  an  agitation  which  must  always  be  accompanied 
with  danger.  The  third  expedient  was  therefore  adopted,  and 
it  was  agreed  that  the  votes  should  be  transmitted  sealed  to  the 
President  of  the  Senate,  and  that  they  should  be  opened  and 
counted  in  the  presence  of  the  Senate  and  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives. If  none  of  the  candidates  has  a  majority,  the  House 
of  Representatives  then  proceeds  immediately  to  elect  a  Presi- 
dent, but  with  the  condition  that  it  must  fix  upon  one  of  the 
three  candidates  who  have  the  highest  numbers.* 


V  As  many  as  it  sends  members  to 
Congress.  The  number  of  electors  at 
the  election  of  1833  was  288.  (See  "  The 
National  Calendar,"  1833.) 

w  The  electors  of  the  same  State  as- 
semble, but  they  transmit  to  the  central 
government  the  list  of  their  individual 
votes,  and  not  the  mere  result  of  the 
vote  of  the  majority. 

X  Tn  this  case  it  is  the  majority  of 
the  States,  and  not  the  majority  of  the 
^^nembers,  which  decides  the  question; 


so  that  New  York  has  not  more  influ- 
ence in  the  debate  than  Rhode  Island. 
Thus  the  citizens  of  the  Union  are  first 
consulted  as  members  of  one  and  the 
same  community;  and,  if  they  cannot 
agree,  recourse  is  had  to  the  division  of 
the  States,  each  of  which  has  a  separate 
and  independent  vote.  This  is  one  of 
the  singularities  of  the  Federal  Consti- 
tution which  can  only  be  explained  by 
the  jar  of  conflicting  interests. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


133 


Thus  it  is  only  in  case  of  an  event  which  cannot  often  hap- 
pen, and  which  can  never  be  foreseen,  that  the  election  is  en- 
trusted to  the  ordinary  representatives  of  the  nation ;  and  even 
then  they  are  obliged  to  choose  a  citizen  who  has  already  been 
designated  by  a  powerful  minority  of  the  special  electors.  It 
is  by  this  happy  expedient  that  the  respect  which  is  due  to  the 
popular  voice  is  combined  with  the  utmost  celerity  of  execution 
and  those  precautions  which  the  peace  of  the  country  demands. 
But  the  decision  of  the  question  by  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives does  not  necessarily  offer  an  immediate  solution  of  the 
difficulty,  for  the  majority  of  that  assembly  may  still  be  doubt- 
ful, and  in  this  case  the  Constitution  prescribes  no  remedy. 
Nevertheless,  by  restricting  the  number  of  candidates  to  three, 
and  by  referring  the  matter  to  the  judgment  of  an  enlightened 
public  body,  it  has  smoothed  all  the  obstacles  y  which  are  not 
inherent  in  the  elective  system. 

In  the  forty-four  years  which  have  elapsed  since  the  pro- 
mulgation of  the  Federal  Constitution  the  United  States  have 
twelve  times  chosen  a  President.  Ten  of  these  elections  took 
place  simultaneously  by  the  votes  of  the  special  electors  in  the 
different  States.  The  House  of  Representatives  has  only  twice 
exercised  its  conditional  privilege  of  deciding  in  cases  of  uncer- 
tainty; the  first  time  was  at  the  election  of  Mr.  Jefferson  in 
1801 ;  the  second  was  in  1825,  when  Mr.  Quincy  Adams  was 
named.^ 

Crisis  of  the  Election 

The  Election  may  be  considered  as  a  national  cr'nis — ^Why? — Passions 
of  the  people — Anxiety  of  the  President — Calm  which  succeeds  the 
agitation  of  the  election. 

I  have  shown  what  the  circumstances  are  which  favored  the 
adoption  of  the  elective  system  in  the  United  States,  and  what 
precautions  were  taken  by  the  legislators  to  obviate  its  dangers. 
The  Americans  are  habitually  accustomed  to  all  kinds  of  elec- 
tions, and  they  know  by  experience  the  utmost  degree  of  ex- 
citement which  is  compatible  with  security.  The  vast  extent 
of  the  country  and  the  dissemination  of  the  inhabitants  render 
a  collision  between  parties  less  probable  and  less  dangerous 
there  than  elsewhere.   The  political  circumstances  under  which 


y  Jefferson,   in   1801,  was  not  elected 
until  the  thirty-sixth  time  of  balloting. 


e  [General  Grant  is  now  (1874)  the 
eighteenth  President  of  the  United 
States.] 


134 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


hi'     »" 


,;     ' 


I 


the  elections  have  hitherto  been  carried  on  have  presented  no 
real  embarrassments  to  the  nation. 

Nevertheless,  the  epoch  of  the  election  of  a  President  of  the 
United  States  may  be  considered  as  a  crisis  in  the  affairs  of  the 
nation.  The  influence  which  he  exercises  on  public  business 
is  no  doubt  feeble  and  indirect ;  but  the  choice  of  the  President, 
which  is  of  small  importance  to  each  individual  citizen,  con- 
cerns the  citizens  collectively ;  and  however  trifling  an  interest 
may  be,  it  assumes  a  great  degree  of  importance  as  soon  as  it 
becomes  general.  The  President  possesses  but  few  means  of 
rewarding  his  supporters  in  comparison  to  the  kings  of  Europe, 
but  the  places  which  are  at  his  disposal  are  sufficiently  numer- 
ous to  interest,  directly  or  indirectly,  several  thousand  electors 
in  his  success.  Political  parties  in  the  United  States  are  led 
to  rally  round  an  individual,  in  order  to  acquire  a  more  tangible 
shape  in  the  eyes  of  the  crowd,  and  the  name  of  the  candidate 
for  the  Presidency  is  put  forward  as  the  symbol  and  personifi- 
cation of  their  theories.  For  these  reasons  parties  are  strongly 
interested  in  gaining  the  election,  not  so  much  with  a  view 
to  the  triumph  of  their  principles  under  the  auspices  of  the 
President-elect  as  to  show  by  the  majority  which  returned  him, 
the  strength  of  the  supporters  of  those  principles. 

For  a  long  while  before  the  appointed  time  is  at  hand  the 
election  becomes  the  most  important  and  the  all-engrossing 
topic  of  discussion.  The  ardor  of  faction  is  -odoubled;  and 
all  the  artificial  passions  which  the  imagination  can  create  in 
the  bosom  of  a  happy  and  peaceful  land  are  agitated  and 
brought  to  light.  The  President,  on  the  other  hand,  is  ab- 
sorbed by  the  cares  of  self-defence.  He  no  longer  governs  for 
the  interest  of  the  State,  but  for  that  of  his  re-election ;  he  does 
homage  to  the  majority,  and  instead  of  checking  its  passions, 
as  his  duty  commands  him  to  do,  he  frequently  courts  its  worst 
caprices.  As  the  election  draws  near,  the  activity  of  intrigue 
and  the  agitation  of  the  populace  increase;  the  citizens  are 
divided  into  hostile  camps,  each  of  which  assumes  the  name  of 
its  favorite  candidate ;  the  whole  nation  glows  with  feverish 
excitement ;  the  election  is  the  daily  theme  of  the  public  papers, 
the  subject  of  private  conversation,  the  end  of  every  thought 
and  every  action,  the  sole  interest  of  the  present.  As  soon  as 
the  choice  is  determined,  this  ardor  is  dispelled ;  and  as  a 
calmer  season  returns,  the  current  of  the  State,  which  had 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


»35 


/ 


nearly  broken  its  banks,  sinks  to  its  usual  level :«  but  who  can 
refrain  from  astonishment  at  the  causes  of  the  storm. 

Re-Election  of  the  President 

When  the  head  of  the  executive  power  is  re-eligible,  it  is  the  State 
which  is  the  source  of  intrigue  and  corruption — The  desire  of  being 
re-elected  the  chief  aim  of  a  President  of  the  United  States — Disad- 
vantage of  the  system  peculiar  to  America — The  natural  evil  of  de- 
mocracy is  that  it  subordinates  all  authority  to  the  slightest  desires 
of  the  majority — The  re-election  of  the  President  encourages  this 
evil. 

It  may  be  asked  whether  the  legislators  of  the  United  States 
did  right  or  wrong  in  allowing  the  re-election  of  the  President. 
It  seems  at  first  sight  contrary  to  all  reason  to  prevent  the  head 
of  the  executive  power  from  being  elected  a  second  time.  The 
influence  which  the  talents  and  the  character  of  a  single  in- 
dividual may  exercise  upon  the  fate  of  a  whole  people,  in  critical 
circumstances  or  arduous  times,  is  well  known:  a  law  pre- 
venting the  re-election  of  the  chief  magistrate  would  deprive 
the  citizens  of  the  surest  pledge  of  the  prosperity  and  the  se- 
curity of  the  commonwealth ;  and,  by  a  singular  inconsistency, 
a  man  would  be  excluded  from  the  government  at  the  very  time 
when  he  had  shown  his  ability  in  conducting  its  aflfairs. 

But  if  these  arguments  are  strong,  perhaps  still  more  power- 
ful reasons  may  be  advanced  against  them.  Intrigue  and  cor- 
ruption are  the  natural  defects  of  elective  government;  but 
when  the  head  of  the  State  can  be  re-elected  these  evils  rise 
to  a  great  height,  and  compromise  the  very  existence  of  the 
country.  When  a  simple  candidate  seeks  to  rise  by  intrigue, 
his  manoeuvres  must  necessarily  be  limited  to  a  narrow  sphere ; 
but  when  the  chief  magistrate  enters  the  lists,  he  borrows  the 
strength  of  the  government  for  his  own  purposes.  In  the 
former  case  the  feeble  resources  of  an  individual  are  in  action ; 
in  the  latter,  the  State  itself,  with  all  its  immense  influence,  is 
busied  in  the  work  of  corruption  and  cabal.  The  private  citizen, 
who  employs  the  most  immoral  practices  to  acquire  power, 
can  only  act  in  a  manner  indirectly  prejudicial  to  the  public 
prosperity.  But  if  the  representative  of  the  executive  descends 
into  the  combat,  the  cares  of  government  dwindle  into  second- 

o  [Not  always.    The  election  of  President  Lincoln  was  the  signal  of  civil 
war. — Translator's  Note.} 


■  11 


II 


1 


\"4 


13* 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


rate  importance,  and  the  success  of  his  election  is  his  first  con- 
cern. All  laws  and  all  the  negotiations  he  undertakes  arc  to 
him  nothing  more  than  electioneering  schemes;  places  be- 
come the  reward  of  services  rendered,  not  to  the  nation,  but  to 
its  chief;  and  the  influence  of  the  government,  if  not  injurious 
to  the  country,  is  at  least  no  longer  beneficial  to  the  community 
for  which  it  was  created. 

It  is  impossible  to  consider  the  ordinary  course  of  aflfairs  in 
the  United  States  without  perceiving  that  the  desire  of  being 
re-elected  is  the  chief  aim  of  the  President;  that  his  whole 
administration,  and  even  his  most  indifferent  measures,  tend  to 
this  object;  and  that,  as  the  crisis  approaches,  his  personal 
interest  takes  the  place  of  his  interest  in  the  public  good.  The 
principle  of  re-eligibility  renders  the  corrupt  influence  of  elec- 
tive government  still  more  extensive  and  pernicious. 

In  America  it  exercises  a  peculiarly  fatal  influence  on  the 
sources  of  national  existence.  Every  government  seems  to  be 
afflicted  by  some  evil  which  is  inherent  in  its  nature,  and  the 
genius  of  the  legislator  is  shown  in  eluding  its  attacks.  A  State 
may  survive  the  influence  of  a  host  of  bad  laws,  and  the  mischief 
they  cause  is  frequently  exaggerated;  but  a  law  which  en- 
courages the  growth  of  the  canker  within  must  prove  fatal  in 
the  end,  although  its  bad  consequences  may  not  be  immediately 
perceived. 

The  principle  of  destruction  in  absolute  monarchies  lies  in 
the  excessive  and  unreasonable  extension  of  the  prerogative  of 
the  crown ;  and  a  measure  tending  to  remove  the  constitutional 
provisions  which  counterbalance  this  influence  would  be  rad- 
ically bad,  even  if  its  immediate  consequences  were  unattended 
with  evil.  By  a  parity  of  reasoning,  in  countries  governed  by 
a  democracy,  where  the  people  is  perpetually  drawing  all  au- 
thority to  itself,  the  laws  which  increase  or  accelerate  its  action 
are  the  direct  assailants  of  the  very  principle  of  the  government. 

The  greatest  proof  of  the  ability  of  the  American  legislators 
is,  that  they  clearly  discerned  this  truth,  and  that  they  had  the 
courage  to  act  up  to  it.  They  conceived  that  a  certain  authority 
above  the  body  of  the  people  was  necessary,  which  should 
enjoy  a  degree  of  independence,  without,  however,  being  en- 
tirely beyond  the  popular  control ;  an  authority  which  would 
be  forced  to  comply  with  the  permanent  determinations  of  the 
majority,  but  which  would  be  able  to  resist  its  caprices,  and  to 


*! 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


«37 


refuse  its  tnost  dangerous  demands.  To  this  end  they  centred 
the  whole  executive  power  of  the  nation  in  a  single  arm ;  they 
granted  extensive  prerogatives  to  the  President,  and  they 
armed  him  with  the  veto  to  resist  the  encroachments  of  the 
legislature. 

But  by  introducing  the  principle  of  re-electicn  they  partly 
destroyed  their  work ;  and  they  rendered  the  President  but  little 
inclined  to  exert  the  great  power  they  had  vested  in  his  hands. 
If  ineligible  a  second  time,  the  President  would  be  far  from 
independent  of  the  people,  for  his  responsibility  would  not  be 
lessened ;  but  the  favor  of  the  people  would  not  be  so  necessary 
to  him  as  to  induce  him  to  court  it  by  humoring  its  desires.  If 
re-eligible  (and  this  is  more  especially  true  at  the  present  day, 
when  political  morality  is  relaxed,  and  when  great  men  are 
rare),  the  President  of  the  United  States  becomes  an  easy  tool 
in  the  hands  of  the  majority.  He  adopts  its  likings  and  its 
animosities,  he  hastens  to  anticipate  its  wishes,  he  forestalls  its 
complaints,  he  yields  to  its  idlest  cravings,  and  instead  of  guid- 
ing it,  as  the  legislature  intended  that  he  should  do,  he  is  ever 
ready  to  follow  its  bidding.  Thus,  in  order  not  to  deprive  the 
State  of  the  talents  of  an  individual,  those  talents  have  been 
rendered  almost  useless;  and  to  reserve  an  expedient  for  ex- 
traordinary perils,  the  country  has  been  exposed  to  daily 
dangers. 

Federal  Courts  & 

Political  importance  of  the  judiciary  in  the  United  States — Difficulty 
of  treating  this  subject — Utility  of  judicial  powei  in  confederations 
— What  tribunals  could  be  introduced  into  the  Union — Necessity  of 
establishing  federal  courts  of  justice — Organization  of  the  national 
judiciary — The  Supreme  Court — In  what  it  differs  from  all  known 
tribunals. 

I  have  inquired  into  the  legislative  and  executive  power  of 
the  Union,  and  the  judicial  power  now  remains  to  be  examined ; 
but  in  this  place  I  cannot  conceal  my  fears  from  the  reader. 
Their  judicial  institutions  exercise  a  great  influence  on  the 
condition  of  the  Anglo-Americans,  and  they  occupy  a  promi- 

ftSee  chap.  VT,  entitled  "Judicial 
Power  in  the  United  States."  This 
chapter  explains  the  general  principles 
of  the  American  theory  of  judicial  insti- 
tutions. See  also  the  Federal  Constitu- 
tion, Art.  3.  See  "The  Federalist," 
Nos.  78-83,  inclusive:  and  a  work  enti- 
tled   "  Constitutional    Law,"    being    a 


view  of  tht  practice  and  jurisdiction  of 
the  courts  of  the  United  States,  by 
Thomas  Sergeant.  See  Story,  pp.  134, 
162,  489,  511,  581,  668;  and  the  organic 
law  of  September  24,  1789,  in  the  "^Col- 
lection of  the  Laws  of  the  United 
States,"  by  Story,  vol.  i.  p.  53. 


( 


i       J 


I 


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I 


i  ^^ 


I 


.  .  il !' 


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138 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


nent  place  amongst  what  are  probably  called  political  institu- 
tions :  in  this  respect  they  are  peculiarly  deserving  of  our  atten- 
tion. But  I  am  at  a  loss  to  explain  the  political  action  of  the 
American  tribunals  without  entering  into  some  technical  de- 
tails of  their  constitution  and  their  forms  of  proceeding;  and 
I  know  not  how  to  descend  to  these  minutiae  without  wearying 
the  curiosity  of  the  reader  by  the  natural  aridity  of  the  subject, 
or  without  risking  to  fall  into  obscurity  through  a  desire  to  be 
succinct.  I  can  scarcely  hope  to  escape  these  various  evils; 
for  if  I  appear  too  lengthy  to  a  man  of  the  world,  a  lawyer  may 
on  the  other  hand  complain  of  my  brevity.  But  these  are  the 
natural  disadvantages  of  my  subject,  and  more  especially  of 
the  point  which  I  am  about  to  discuss. 

The  great  difficulty  was,  not  to  devise  the  Constitution  to 
the  Federal  Government,  but  to  find  out  a  method  of  enforcing 
its  laws.  Governments  have  in  general  but  two  means  of  over- 
coming the  opposition  of  the  people  they  govern,  viz.,  the  physi- 
cal force  which  is  at  their  own  disposal,  and  the  moral  force 
which  they  derive  from  the  decisions  of  the  courts  of  justice. 

A  government  which  should  have  no  other  means  of  exacting 
obedience  than  open  war  must  be  very  near  its  ruin,  for  one 
of  two  alternatives  would  then  probably  occur:  if  its  authority 
was  small  and  its  character  temperate,  it  would  not  resort  to 
violence  till  the  last  extremity,  and  it  would  connive  at  a  num- 
ber of  partial  acts  of  insubordination,  in  which  case  the  State 
would  gradually  fall  into  anarchy;  if  it  was  enterprising  and 
powerful,  it  would  perpetually  have  recourse  to  its  physical 
strength,  and  would  speedily  degenerate  into  a  military  despot- 
ism. So  that  its  activity  would  not  be  less  prejudicial  to  the 
community  than  its  inaction. 

The  great  end  of  justice  is  to  substitute  the  notion  of  right 
for  that  of  violence,  and  to  place  a  legal  barrier  between  the 
power  of  the  government  and  the  use  of  physical  force.  The 
authority  which  is  awarded  to  the  intervention  of  a  court  of 
justice  by  the  general  opinion  of  mankind  is  so  surprisingly 
great  that  it  clings  to  the  mere  formalities  of  justice,  and  gives 
a  bodily  influence  to  the  shadow  of  the  law.  The  moral  force 
which  courts  of  justice  possess  renders  the  introduction  of 
physical  force  exceedingly  rare,  and  is  very  frequently  sub- 
stituted for  it ;  but  if  the  latter  proves  to  be  indispensable,  its 
power  is  doubled  by  the  association  of  the  idea  of  law. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


«39 


A  federal  government  stands  in  greater  need  of  the  support 
of  judicial  institutions  than  any  other,  because  it  is  naturally 
weak  and  exposed  to  formidable  opposition.f  If  it  were  always 
oHiged  to  resort  to  violence  in  the  first  instance,  it  could  not 
fulfil  its  task.  The  Union,  therefore,  required  a  national  ju- 
diciary to  enforce  the  obedience  of  the  citizens  to  the  laws, 
and  to  repeal  the  attacks  which  might  be  directed  vigainst  them. 
The  question  then  remained  as  to  what  tribunals  were  to  exer- 
cise these  privileges ;  were  they  to  be  entrusted  to  the  courts 
of  justice  which  were  already  organized  in  every  State?  or  was 
it  necessary  to  create  federal  courts?  It  may  easily  be  proved 
that  the  Union  could  not  adapt  the  judicial  po  ver  of  the  States 
to  its  wants.  The  separation  of  the  judiciary  from  the  admin- 
istrative power  of  the  State  no  doubt  aflFects  the  security  of 
every  citizen  and  the  liberty  of  all.  But  it  is  no  less  important 
to  the  existence  of  the  nation  that  these  several  powers  should 
have  the  same  origin,  should  follow  the  same  principles,  and 
act  in  the  same  sphere ;  in  a  word,  that  they  should  be  correla- 
tive and  homogeneous.  No  one,  I  presume,  ever  suggested 
the  advantage  of  trying  offences  committed  in  France  by  a 
foreign  court  of  justice,  in  order  to  secure  the  impartiality  of  the 
judges.  The  Americans  form  one  people  in  relation  to  their 
Federal  Government;  but  in  the  bosom  of  this  people  divers 
political  bodies  have  been  allowed  to  subsist  which  are  de- 
pendent on  the  national  Government  in  a  few  points,  and  inde- 
pendent in  all  the  rest ;  which  have  all  a  distinct  origin,  maxims 
peculiar  to  themselves,  and  special  means  of  carrying  on  their 
affairs.  To  entrust  the  execution  of  the  laws  of  the  Union  to 
tribunals  instituted  by  these  political  bodies  would  be  to  allow 
foreign  judges  to  preside  over  the  nation.  Nay,  more ;  not  only 
is  each  State  foreign  to  the  Union  at  large,  but  it  is  in  perpetual 
opposition  to  the  common  interests,  since  whatever  authority 
the  Union  loses  turns  to  the  advantage  of  the  States.  Thus  to 
enforce  the  laws  of  the  Union  by  means  of  the  tribunals  of  the 
States  would  be  to  allow  not  only  foreign  but  partial  judges  to 
preside  over  the  nation. 

But  the  number,  still  more  than  the  mere  character,  of  the 


,1    l-i 


c  Federal  laws  arc  those  which  most 
reauire  courts  of  justice,  and  those  at 
the  same  time  which  have  most_  rarely 
established  them.  The  reason  is  that 
confederations  have  usually  been  formed 
by    independent    States,    which    enter- 


tained no  real  intention  of  obeying  the 
central  Government,  and  which  very 
readily  ceded  the  right  of  command 
to  the  federal  executive,  and  very  pru- 
dently reserved  the  right  of  non-com- 
pliance to  themselves. 


140 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


tribunals  of  the  States  rendered  them  unfit  for  the  S(  •'  ;  of 
the  nation.  When  the  Federal  Constitution  was  formca  iicre 
were  already  thirteen  courts  of  justice  in  the  United  States 
which  decided  causes  without  appeal.  That  number  is  now 
increased  to  twenty-four.  To  suppose  that  a  State  can  subsist 
when  its  fundamental  laws  may  be  subjected  to  four-and-twenty 
different  interpretations  at  the  same  time  is  to  advance  a  propo- 
sition alike  contrary  to  reason  and  to  experience. 

The  American  legislators  thereiore  agreed  to  create  a  federal 
judiciary  power  to  apply  the  laws  of  the  Union,  and  to  de- 
termine certain  questions  affecting  general  interests,  which 
were  carefully  determined  beforehand.  The  entire  judicial 
power  of  the  Union  was  centred  in  one  tribunal,  which  was 
denominated  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  But, 
to  facilitate  the  expedition  of  business,  inferior  courts  were  ap- 
pended to  it,  which  were  empowered  to  decide  causes  of  small 
importance  without  appeal,  and  with  appeal  causes  of  more 
magnitude.  The  members  of  the  Supreme  Court  are  named 
neither  by  the  people  nor  the  legislature,  but  by  the  President  of 
the  United  States,  acting  with  the  advice  of  the  Senate.  In 
order  to  render  them  independent  of  the  other  authorities,  their 
office  was  made  inalienable ;  and  it  was  determined  that  their 
salary,  when  once  fixed,  should  not  be  altered  by  the  legisla- 
ture.d  It  was  easy  to  proclaim  the  principle  of  a  Federal  judi- 
ciary, but  difficulties  multiplied  when  the  extent  of  its  jurisdic- 
tion was  to  be  determined. 


dThe  Union  was  divided  into  dis- 
tricts, in  each  of  which  a  resident  Fed- 
eral judge  was  appointed,  and  the  court 
in  which  he  presided  was  termed  a 
"  District  Court."  Each  of  the  judges 
of  the  Supreme  Court  annually  visits 
a  certain  portion  of  the  Republic,  in 
order  to  try  the  most  important  causes 
upon  the  spot;  the  court  presided  over 
by  this  magistrate  is  styled  a  "  Circuit 
Court."  Lastly,  all  the  most  serious 
cases  of  litigation  are  brought  before 
the  Supreme  Court,  which  holds  a  sol- 
emn session  once  a  year,  at  which  all 
the  judges  of  the  Circuit  Courts  must 
attend.    The  jury  was  introduced  into 


the  Federal  Courts  in  the  same  manner, 
•nd  in  the  same  cases,  as  into  the  courts 
of  the  States. 

It  wilt  be  observed  that  no  analogy 
exists  between  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States  and  tne  French  Cour 
de  Cassation,  since  the  latter  only  hears 
appeals  «n  questions  of  law.  Xhe  Su- 
preme Court  decides  upon  the  evidence 
of  the  fact  as  well  as  upon  the  law  of 
the  case,  whereas  the  Cour  de  Cassa- 
tion does  not  pronounce  a  decision  of 
its  own,  but  refers  the  cause  to  the  ar- 
bitration of  another  tribunal.  See  the 
law  of  September  24,  1789,  "  Laws  of  the 
United  States,"  by  Story,  vol.  i.  p.  53. 


^■' 


DEMOCUACY  IN  AMERICA 


141 


MkANS  ok  DkTERMINING  the  JUKISDICTION  OF  THE  FeUERAL 

Courts 

Difficulty  of  determining  the  jurisdiction  of  separate  courts  of  justice 
in  confederations — The  courts  of  the  Union  obtained  the  right  of 
fixing  their  own  jurisdiction — In  what  respect  this  rule  attacks  the 
portion  of  sovereignty  reserved  to  the  several  States — The  sover- 
eignty of  these  States  restricted  by  the  laws,  and  the  interpretation 
of  the  laws — Consequently,  the  danger  of  the  several  States  is  more 
apparent  than  real. 

As  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  recognized  two 
distinct  powers  in  presence  of  each  other,  represented  in  a 
judicial  point  of  view  by  two  distinct  classes  of  courts  of  justice, 
the  utmost  care  which  could  be  taken  in  defining  their  separate 
jurisdictions  would  have  been  insufficient  to  prevent  frequent 
collisions  between  those  tribunals.  The  question  then  arose  to 
whom  the  right  of  deciding  the  competency  of  each  court  was 
to  be  referred. 

In  nations  which  constitute  a  single  body  politic,  when  a 
question  is  debated  between  two  courts  relating  to  their  mutual 
jurisdiction,  a  third  tribunal  is  generally  within  reach  to  decide 
the  difference ;  and  this  is  effected  without  difficulty,  because 
in  these  nations  the  questions  of  judicial  competency  have  no 
connection  with  the  privileges  of  the  national  supremacy.  But 
it  was  impossible  to  create  an  arbiter  between  a  superior  court 
of  the  Union  and  the  superior  court  of  a  separate  State  which 
would  not  belong  to  one  of  these  two  classes.  It  was,  therefore, 
necessary  to  allow  one  of  these  courts  to  judge  its  own  cause, 
and  to  take  or  to  retain  cognizance  of  the  point  which  was  con- 
tested. To  grant  this  privilege  to  the  different  courts  of  the 
States  would  have  been  to  destroy  the  sovereignty  of  the  Union 
de  facto  after  having  established  it  de  jure;  for  the  interpreta- 
tion of  the  Constitution  would  soon  have  restored  that  portion 
of  independence  to  the  States  of  which  the  terms  of  that  act 
deprived  them.  The  object  of  the  creation  of  a  Federal  tribunal 
was  to  prevent  the  courts  of  the  States  from  deciding  questions 
affecting  the  national  interests  in  their  own  department,  and  so 
to  form  a  uniform  body  of  jurisprudene  for  the  interpretation 
of  the  laws  of  the  Union.  This  end  would  not  have  been  ac- 
complished if  the  courts  of  the  several  States  had  been  compe- 
tent to  decide  upon  cases  in  their  separate  capacities  from  which 
they  were  obliged  to  abstain  as  Federal  tribunals.  The  Supreme 


t 


'U' 


^'m 


142 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


Court  of  the  United  States  was  therefore  invested  with  the 
right  of  determining  all  questions  of  jurisdiction.^ 

This  was  a  severe  blow  upon  the  independence  of  the  States, 
which  was  thus  restricted  not  omy  by  the  laws,  b'lt  by  the  in- 
terpretation of  them ;  by  one  limit  which  was  known,  and  by 
another  which  was  dubious ;  by  a  rule  which  was  certain,  and 
a  rule  which  was  arbitrary.  It  is  true  the  Constitution  had  laid 
down  the  precise  limits  of  the  Federal  supremacy,  but  when- 
ever this  supremacy  is  contested  by  one  of  the  States,  a  Federal 
tribunal  decides  the  question.  Nevertheless,  the  dangers  with 
which  the  independence  of  the  States  was  threatened  by  this 
mode  of  proceeding  are  less  serious  than  they  appeared  to  be. 
We  shall  see  hereafter  that  in  America  the  real  strength  of  the 
country  is  vested  in  the  provincial  far  more  than  in  the  Federal 
Government.  The  Federal  judges  are  conscious  of  the  relative 
weakness  of  the  power  in  whose  name  they  act,  and  they  are 
more  inclined  to  abandon  a  right  of  jurisdiction  in  cases  where 
it  is  justly  their  own  than  to  assert  a  privilege  to  which  they 
have  no  legal  claim. 


■  1} 


Different  Cases  of  Jurisdiction 

The  matter  and  the  party  are  the  first  conditions  of  the  Federal  jurisdic- 
tion— Suits  in  which  ambassadors  are  engaged — Suits  of  the  Union 
— Of  a  separate  State — By  whom  tried — Causes  resulting  from  the 
laws  of  the  Union — Why  judged  by  the  Federal  tribunals — Causes 
relating  to  the  performance  of  contracts  tried  by  the  Federal 
courts — Consequence  of  this  arrangement. 

After  having  appointed  the  means  of  fixing  the  competency 
of  the  Federal  courts,  the  legislators  of  the  Union  defined  the 
cases  which  should  come  within  their  jurisdiction.  It  was  es- 
tablished, on  the  one  hand,  that  certain  parties  must  always  be 
brought  before  the  Federal  courts,  without  any  regard  to  the 
special  nature  of  the  cause;  and,  on  the  other,  that  certain 
causes  must  always  be  brought  before  the  same  courts,  without 
any  regard  to  the  quality  of  the  parties  in  the  suit.  These  dis- 
tinctions were  therefore  admitted  to  be  the  basis  of  the  Federal 
jurisdiction. 


e  In  order  to  diminish  the  number 
of  these  suits,  it  was  decided  that  in  a 
great  many  Federal  causes  the  courts 
of  the  States  should  be  empowered  to 
decide  conjointly  with  those  of  the 
TJnion,  the  losin^;  party  having  then  a 
right  of  appeal  to  the  Supreme  Court 
of   the   United    States.    The    Supreme 


Court  of  Virginia  contested  the  right 
of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  to  judge  an  appeal  from  its  decis- 
ions, but  unsucces.-fully.  See  "  Kent's 
Commentaries,"  vol.  i.  p.  300,  pp.  370 
et  scq.;  Story's  "  Commentaries,"  p. 
646;  and  "The  Organic  Law  of  the 
United  States,"  vol  i.  p.  35. 


i:  .' 


1^* 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


M3 


Ambassadors  are  the  representatives  of  nations  in  a  state  of 
amity  with  the  Union,  and  whatever  concerns  these  personages 
concerns  in  some  degree  the  whole  Union.  When  an  ambassa- 
dor is  a  party  in  a  suit,  that  suit  affects  the  welfare  of  the  nation, 
and  a  Federal  tribunal  is  naturally  called  upon  to  decide  it. 

The  Union  itself  may  be  invoked  in  legal  proceedings,  and  in 
this  case  it  would  be  alike  contrary  to  the  customs  of  all  na- 
tions and  to  common  sense  to  appeal  to  a  tribunal  representing 
any  other  sovereignty  than  its  own ;  the  Federal  courts,  there- 
fore, take  cognizance  of  these  affairs. 

When  two  parties  belonging  to  two  different  States  are  en- 
gaged in  a  suit,  the  case  cannot  with  propriety  be  brought  before 
a  court  of  either  State.  The  surest  expedient  is  to  select  a 
tribunal  like  that  of  the  Union,  which  can  excite  the  suspicions 
of  neither  party,  and  which  offers  the  most  natural  as  well  as  the 
most  certain  remedy. 

When  the  two  parties  are  not  private  individuals,  but  States, 
an  important  political  consideration  is  added  to  the  same  motive 
of  equity.  The  quality  of  the  parties  in  this  case  gives  a  national 
importance  to  all  their  disputes ;  and  the  most  trifling  litigation 
of  the  States  may  be  said  to  involve  the  peace  of  the  whole 
Union.^ 

The  nature  of  the  cause  frequently  prescribes  the  rule  of 
competency.  Thus  all  the  questions  which  concern  maritime 
commerce  evidently  fall  under  the  cognizance  of  the  Federal 
tribunals.g  Almost  all  these  questions  are  connected  with  the 
interpretation  of  the  law  of  nations,  and  in  this  respect  they 
essentially  interest  the  Union  in  relation  to  foreign  powers. 
Moreover,  as  the  sea  is  not  included  within  the  limits  of  any 
peculiar  jurisdiction,  the  national  courts  can  only  hear  causes 
which  originate  in  maritime  affairs. 

The  Constitution  comprises  under  one  head  almost  all  the 
cases  which  by  their  very  nature  come  within  the  limits  of  the 
Federal  courts.    The  rule  which  it  lays  down  is  simple,  but 


f  The  Constitution  also  says  tliat  the 
Federal  courts  shall  decide  controver- 
sies between  a  State  and  the  citizens  of 
another  State."  And  here  a  most  im- 
portant question  of  a  constitutional  nat- 
ure arose,  which  was,  whether  the  jur- 
isdiction given  by  the  Constitution  in 
cases  in  which  a  State  is  a  party  extend- 
ed to  suits  brought  against  a  State  as 
well  as  hy  it,  or  was  exclusively  con- 
fined to  the  latter.  The  question  was 
jnost  elaborately  considered  in  the  case 


of  Chisholm  v.  Georgia,  and  was  decided 
by  the  majority  of  the  Supreme  Court 
in  the  affirmative.  The  decision  cre- 
ated general  alarm  among  the  States, 
and  an  amendment  was  proposed  and 
ratified  by  which  the  power  was  entirely 
taken  away,  so  far  as  it  rectirds  suits 
brought  against  a  State.  See  Story's 
"  Commentaries,"  p.  624,  or  in  the  large 
edition  §1677. 
g  As  for  instance,  all  cases  of  piracy. 


I 


i). 


h'\ 


144 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


pregnant  with  an  entire  system  of  ideas,  and  with  a  vast  multi- 
tude of  facts.  It  declares  that  the  judicial  power  of  the  Supreme 
Court  shall  extend  to  all  cases  in  law  and  equity  arising  under 
the  laws  of  the  United  States. 

Two  examples  will  put  the  intention  of  the  legislator  in  the 
clearest  light : 

The  Constitution  prohibits  the  States  from  making  laws  on 
the  value  and  circulation  of  money:  If,  notwithstanding  this 
prohibition,  a  State  passes  a  law  of  this  kind,  with  which  the 
interested  parties  refuse  to  comply  because  it  is  contrary  to  the 
Constitution,  the  case  must  come  before  a  Federal  court,  be- 
cause it  arises  under  the  laws  of  the  United  States.  Again,  if 
difficulties  arise  in  the  levying  of  import  duties  which  have  been 
voted  by  Congress,  the  Federal  court  must  decide  the  case,  be- 
cause it  arises  under  the  interpretation  of  a  law  of  the  United 
States. 

This  rule  is  in  perfect  accordance  with  the  fundamental  prin- 
ciples of  the  Federal  Constitution.  The  Union,  as  it  was  es- 
tablished in  1789,  possesses,  it  is  true,  a  limited  supremacy ;  but 
it  was  intended  that  within  its  limits  it  shoulti  lorm  one  and  the 
same  people.^  Within  those  limits  the  Union  is  sovereign. 
When  this  point  is  established  and  admitted,  the  inference  is 
easy ;  for  if  it  be  acknowledged  that  the  United  States  consti- 
tute one  and  the  same  people  within  the  bounds  prescribed  by 
their  Constitution,  it  is  impossible  to  refuse  them  the  rights 
which  belong  to  other  nations.  But  it  has  been  allowed,  from 
the  origin  of  society,  that  every  nation  has  the  right  of  deciding 
by  its  own  courts  those  questions  which  concern  the  execution 
of  its  own  laws.  To  this  it  is  answered  that  the  Union  is  in  so 
singular  a  position  that  in  relation  to  some  matters  it  consti- 
tutes a  people,  and  that  in  relation  to  all  the  rest  it  is  a  nonentity. 
But  the  inference  to  be  drawn  is,  that  in  the  laws  relating  to 
these  matters  the  Union  possesses  all  the  rights  of  absolute 
sovereignty.  The  difficulty  is  to  know  what  these  matters  are ; 
and  when  once  it  is  resolved  (and  we  have  shown  how  it  was 
resolved,  in  speaking  of  the  means  of  determining  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  Federal  courts)  no  further  doubt  can  arise;  for  as 
soon  as  it  is  established  that  a  suit  is  Federal — that  is  to  say. 


h  This  principle  was  in  some  measure 
restricted  by  the  introduction  of  the 
several  States  as  independent  powers 
into  the  Senate,  and  by  allowinR  them 
to  vote  separately  in  the  House  of  Rep- 


resentatives when  the  President  is  elect- 
ed by  that  body.  But  these  are  excep- 
tions, and  the  contrary  principle  is  the 
rule. 


A 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


»45 


that  it  belongs  to  the  share  of  sovereignty  reserved  by  the  Con- 
stitution of  the  Union-  -the  natural  consequence  is  that  it  should 
come  within  the  jurisdiction  of  a  Federal  court. 

Whenever  the  laws  of  the  United  States  are  attacked,  or 
whenever  they  are  resorted  to  in  self-defence,  the  Federal  courts 
must  be  appealed  to.  Thus  the  jurisdiction  of  the  tribunals  of 
the  Union  extends  and  narrows  its  limits  exactly  in  the  same 
ratio  as  the  sovereignty  of  the  Union  augments  or  decreases. 
We  have  shown  that  the  principal  aim  of  the  legislators  of  1789 
was  to  divide  the  sovereign  authority  into  two  parts.  In  the  one 
they  placed  the  control  of  all  the  general  interests  of  the  Union, 
in  the  other  the  control  of  the  special  interests  of  its  component 
States.  Their  chief  solicitude  was  to  arm  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment with  sufficient  power  to  enable  it  to  resist,  within  its  sphere, 
the  encroachments  of  the  several  States.  As  for  these  com- 
munities, the  principle  of  independence  within  certain  limits  of 
their  own  was  adopted  in  their  behalf ;  and  they  were  concealed 
from  the  inspection,  and  protected  from  the  control,  of  the  cen- 
tral Government.  In  speaking  of  the  division  of  authority,  I 
observed  that  this  latter  principle  had  not  always  been  held 
sacred,  since  the  States  are  prevented  from  passing  certain  laws 
which  apparently  belong  to  their  own  particular  sphere  of  in- 
terest. When  a  State  of  the  Union  passes  a  law  of  this  kind, 
the  citizens  who  are  injured  by  its  execution  can  appeal  to  the 
Federal  courts. 

Thus  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Federal  courts  extends  not  only 
to  all  the  cases  which  arise  under  the  laws  of  the  Union,  but  also 
to  those  which  arise  under  laws  made  by  t*i2  .several  States  in 
opposition  to  the  Constitution.  The  States  a.>-  p'-ohibited  from 
making  ex  post  facto  laws  in  criminal  c^se; ,  nid  p.ny  person 
condemned  by  virtue  of  a  law  of  this  kind  csr>  apf  e'!^  to  the 
judicial  power  of  the  Union.  The  Stf>/^o:s  are  lik  wis^  pro- 
hibited from  making  laws  which  may  have  a  tenden-^y  to  im- 
pair the  obligations  of  contracts.*    If  a  citizen  thinks  that  an 

i.  It  is  perfectly  clear,  says  Mr.  Story 
("  Commentaries,"    p.    503,    or    in    the 


large  edition  f  1379),  that  any  law  which 
enlarges,  abridges,  or  in  any  manner 
changes  the  intention  of  the  parties,  re- 
sulting from  the  stipulations  in  the  con- 
tract, necessarily  impairs  it.  He  gives 
in  the  same  place  a  very  long  and  care- 
ful definition  of  whnt  is  understood  by 
a  contract  in  Federal  jurisprudence.  _A 
grant  made  by  the  State  to  a  private  in- 
dividual, and  accepted  by  him,  is  a 
Contract,  and  cannot  be  revoked  by  any 

Vol.  I— 10 


future  Jaw.  A  ci  arter  granted  by  the 
State  to  a  company  is  a  contract,  and 
equally  binding  to  the  State  as  to  the 
grantee.  The  clause  of  the  Constitu- 
tion here  referred  to  insures,  therefore, 
the  existence  of  a  great  part  of  acquired 
rights,  but  not  ol  all.  Property  may 
legally  be  held,  though  it  may  not  have 
passed  into  the  possessor's  hands  by 
means  of  a  contract;  and  its.  r^ossessioh 
is  an  acquired  right,  not  guaranteed  by 
the  Federal  Constitution. 


'^  1.1 


I 

,1 


w 


\ti 


146 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


obligation  of  this  kind  is  impaired  by  a  law  passed  in  his  State, 
he  may  refuse  to  obey  it,  and  may  appeal  to  the  Federal  courts.;' 
This  provision  appears  to  me  to  he  the  most  serious  attack 
upon  the  independence  of  the  States.  The  rights  awarded  to  the 
Federal  Government  for  purposes  of  obvious  national  im- 
portance are  definite  and  easily  comprehensible ;  but  those  with 
which  this  last  clause  invests  it  are  not  either  clearly  appreciable 
or  accurately  defined.  For  there  are  vast  numbers  of  political 
laws  which  influence  the  existence  of  obligations  of  contracts, 
which  may  thus  furnish  an  easy  pretext  for  the  aggressions  of 
thf;  central  authority. 


^         f 


m. 


if 


Procedure  of  the  Federal  Courts 

Natural  weakness  of  the  judiciary  power  in  confederations — Legis- 
lators ought  to  strive  as  much  as  possible  to  bring  private  in- 
dividuals, and  not  States,  before  the  Federal  Courts — How  the 
Americans  have  succeeded  in  this — Direct  prosecution  of  private 
individuals  in  the  Federal  Courts — Indirect  prosecution  of  the 
States  which  violate  the  laws  of  the  Union — The  decrees  of  the  Su- 
preme Court  enervate  but  do  not  destroy  the  provincial  laws. 

I  have  shown  what  the  privileges  of  the  Federal  courts  are, 
and  it  j  no  less  important  to  point  out  the  manner  in  which  they 
are  exercised.  The  irresistible  authority  of  justice  in  countries 
in  which  the  sovereignty  in  undivided  is  derived  frc n  the  fact 
that  the  tribunals  of  those  countries  represent  the  entire  nation 
at  issue  with  the  individual  against  whom  their  decree  is  di- 
rected, and  the  idea  of  power  is  thus  introduced  to  corroborate 
the  idea  of  right.    But  this  is  not  always  the  case  in  countries  in 


;  A  remarkable  instance  of  this  is 
given  by  Mr.  Story  (p.  508,  or  in  the 
lar(?e  edition  §1388) :  "  Dartmouth  Col- 
lege in  New  Hampshire  had  been 
founded  by  a  charter  granted  to  certain 
individuals  before  the  American  Rev- 
olution, and  its  trustees  formed  a  cor- 
poration under  this  charter.  The  legis- 
lature of  New  Hampshire  had,  without 
the  consent  of  this  corporation,  passed 
an  act  changing  the  organization  of  tho 
original  provincial  charter  ot  the  col- 
lege, and  transferring  all  the  rights, 
privileges,  and  franchises  from  the  old 
charter  trustees  to  new  trustees  appoint- 
ed under  the  act.  The  constitutionality 
of  the  act  was  contested,  and,  after  sol- 
emn arguments,  it  was  deliberately  held 
by  the  Supreme  Court  that  the  t>rovin- 
cial  charter  was  a  contract  within  the 
meaning  of  the  Constitution  (Art.  I. 
5  10),  and  that  the  emendatory  act  ^yas 
utterly  void,  as  impairing  the  obligation 


of  that  charter.  The  college  was 
deemed,  like  other  colleges  of  private 
foundation,  to  be  a  private  eleemosy- 
nary institution,  endowed  by  its  charter 
vl.h  a  capacity  to  take  property  uncon- 
ric-cted  with  the  Government.  Its  funds 
were  bestowed  upon  the  faith  of  the 
charter,  and  those  funds  consisted  en- 
tirely of  private  donations.  It  is  true 
that  the  uses  were  in  some  sense  public, 
that  is,  for  the  general  benefit,  and  not 
for  the  mere  benefit  of  the  corporators; 
but  this  did  not  make  the  corporation 
a  public  corporation.  It  was  a  private 
institution  for  general  charity.  It  was 
not  distinguishable  in  principle  from  a 
private  donation,  vested  in  private  tri's- 
tees,  for  a  public  charity,  or  for  a  par- 
ticular purpose  of  beneficence.  And 
the  State  itself,  if  it  had  bestowed  funds 
upon  a  charity  of  the  same  naturei 
could  not  resume  those  funds." 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


147 


\  } 


private 


which  the  sovereignty  is  divided ;  in  them  the  judicial  power  is 
more  frequently  opposed  to  a  fraction  of  the  nation  than  to  an 
isolated  individual,  and  its  moral  authority  and  physical  strength 
are  consequently  diminished.  In  federal  States  the  power  of 
the  judge  is  naturally  decreased,  and  that  of  the  justiciable 
parties  is  augmented.  The  aim  of  the  legislator  in  confederate 
States  ought  therefore  to  be  to  render  the  position  of  the  courts 
of  justice  analogous  to  that  which  they  occupy  in  countries 
where  the  sovereignty  is  undivided ;  in  other  words,  his  efforts 
ought  constantly  to  tend  to  maintain  the  judicial  power  of  the 
confederation  as  the  representative  of  the  nation,  and  the  justici- 
able party  as  the  representative  of  an  individual  interest. 

Every  government,  whatever  may  be  its  constitution,  re- 
quires the  means  of  constraining  its  subjects  to  discharge  their 
obligations,  and  of  protecting  its  privileges  from  their  assaults. 
As  far  as  the  direct  action  of  the  Government  on  the  community 
is  concerned,  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  contrived, 
by  a  master-stroke  of  policy,  that  the  federal  courts,  acting  in 
the  name  of  the  laws,  should  only  take  cognizance  of  parties  in 
an  individual  capacity.  For,  as  it  had  been  declared  that  the 
Union  consisted  of  one  and  the  same  people  within  the  limits 
laid  down  by  the  Constitution,  the  in'.erence  was  that  the  Gov- 
ernment created  by  this  Constitution,  and  acting  within  these 
limits,  was  invested  with  all  the  privileges  of  a  national  gov- 
ernment, one  of  the  principal  of  which  is  the  right  of  trans- 
mitting its  injunctions  directly  to  the  private  citizen.  When, 
for  instance,  the  Union  votes  an  impost,  it  does  not  apply  to  the 
States  for  the  levying  of  it,  but  to  every  American  citizen  in 
proportion  to  his  assessment.  The  Supreme  Court,  which  is 
empowered  to  enforce  the  exfcution  of  this  law  of  the  Union, 
exerts  its  influence  not  upon  a  refractory  State,  but  upon  the 
private  taxpayer;  and,  like  the  judicial  power  of  other  na- 
tions, it  is  opposed  to  the  person  of  an  individual.  It  is  to  be 
observed  that  the  Union  chose  its  own  antagonist ;  and  as  that 
antagonist  is  feeble,  he  is  naturally  worsted. 

But  the  diificulty  increases  when  the  proceedings  are  not 
brought  forward  by  but  against  the  Union.  The  Constitution 
recognizes  the  legislative  power  of  the  States  ;  and  a  law  so  en- 
acted may  impair  the  privileges  of  the  Union,  in  which  case  a 
collision  is  unavoidable  between  that  body  and  the  State  which 
has  passed  the  law:   and  it  only  remains  to  select  the  least 


•  U 


"  n 


uuoje- •••««>" 


148 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


dangerous  remedy,  which  is  very  clearly  deducible  from  the 
general  principles  I  have  before  established.* 

It  may  be  conceived  that,  in  the  case  under  consideration,  the 
Union  might  have  used  the  State  before  a  Federal  court,  which 
would  have  annulled  the  act,  and  by  this  means  it  would  have 
adopted  a  natural  course  of  proceeding;  but  the  judicial  power 
would  have  been  placed  in  open  hostility  to  the  State,  and  it  was 
desirable  to  avoid  this  predicament  as  much  as  possible.  The 
Americans  hold  that  it  is  nearly  impossible  that  a  new  law 
should  not  impair  the  interests  of  some  private  individual  by 
its  provisions :  these  private  interests  are  assumed  by  the  Ameri- 
can legislators  as  the  ground  of  attack  against  such  measures 
as  may  be  prejudicial  to  the  Union,  and  it  is  to  these  cases  that 
the  protection  of  the  Supreme  Court  is  extended. 

Suppose  a  State  vends  a  certain  portion  o<  its  territory  to  a 
company,  and  that  a  year  afterwards  it  pr  -^ses  a  law  by  which 
the  territory  is  otherwise  disposed  of,  and  that  clause  of  th  ^  Con- 
stitution which  prohibits  laws  impairing  the  obligation  of  con- 
tracts violated.  When  the  purchaser  under  the  second  act  ap- 
pears to  take  possession,  the  possessor  under  the  first  act  brings 
his  action  before  the  tribunals  of  the  Union,  and  causes  the  title 
of  the  claimant  to  be  pronounced  null  and  void.^  Thus,  in  point 
of  fac'--  the  judicial  power  of  the  Union  is  contesting  the  claims 
of  the  sovereignty  of  a  State;  hut  it  only  acts  indirectly  and 
upon  a  special  application  of  detail:  it  attacks  the  law  in  its 
consequences,  not  in  its  principle,  and  it  rather  weakens  than 
destroys  it. 

The  last  hypothesis  that  remained  was  that  each  State  formed 
a  corporation  enjoying  a  separate  existence  and  distinct  civil 
rights,  an  J  that  it  could  therefore  sue  or  be  sued  before  a  tribu- 
nal. Thus  a  State  could  bring  an  action  against  another  State. 
In  tMs  instance  the  Union  was  not  called  upon  to  contest  a  pro- 
v'.icial  law,  but  to  try  a  suit  in  which  a  State  was  a  party.  This 
suit  vi'as  perfectly  similar  to  any  other  cause,  except  that  the 
qur>lity  of  the  parties  wac  different ;  and  here  the  danger  pointed 
out  at  the  Wgininng  oi  Itiis  chapter  exists  with  less  chance  of 
being  avoiiTed.  The  inherent  di,  .^vantage  of  the  very  essence 
of  Fetleral  cotistit'.iions  is  that  they  engender  parties  in  the 
bosom  of  the  nation  which  present  powerful  obstacles  to  the  free 
course  of  justice. 


k  See     Chapter     Vt. 
Power  in  America." 


on     "  Judicial  t  See  Kent's  "  Commentaries,"  vol.  i. 

p.  387- 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


149 


\^ 


High  Rank  of  the  Supreme  Court  amongst  the  Great 

Powers  of  State 

No  nation  ever  constituted  so  great  a  judicial  power  as  the  Americans 
— Extent  of  its  prerogative — Its  political  influence — The  tranquillity 
and  the  very  existence  of  the  Union  depend  on  the  discretion  of  the 
seven  Federal  Judges. 

When  we  have  successively  examined  in  detail  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Supreme  Court,  and  the  entire  prerogatives  which  it 
exercises,  v^e  shall  readily  admit  that  a  more  imposing  judicial 
power  was  never  constituted  by  any  people.  The  Supreme 
Court  is  placed  at  the  head  of  all  kncwn  tribunals,  both  by  the 
nature  of  its  rights  and  the  class  of  justiciable  parties  which  it 
controls. 

In  all  the  civilized  countries  of  Europe  the  Government  has 
always  shown  the  greatest  repugnance  to  allow  the  cases  to 
which  it  was  itself  a  party  to  be  decided  bj  the  ordinary  course 
of  justice.  This  repugnance  naturally  attains  its  utmost  height 
in  an  absolute  Government ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  privi- 
leges of  the  courts  of  justice  are  extended  with  the  increasing 
liberties  of  the  people :  but  no  European  nation  has  at  present 
held  that  all  judicial  controversies,  without  regard  to  their 
origin,  can  be  decided  by  the  judges  of  common  law. 

In  America  this  theory  has  been  actually  put  in  practice,  and 
the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  is  the  sole  tribunal  of 
the  nation.  Its  power  extends  to  all  the  cases  arising  under 
laws  and  treaties  made  by  the  executive  and  legislative  authori- 
ties, to  all  cases  of  admiralty  and  maritime  jurisdiction,  and  in 
general  to  all  points  which  affect  the  law  of  nations.  It  may 
even  be  affirmed  that,  although  its  constitution  is  essentially 
judicial,  its  prerogatives  are  almost  entirely  political.  Its  sole 
object  is  to  enforce  the  execution  of  the  laws  of  the  Union ;  and 
the  Union  only  regulates  the  relations  of  the  Government  v^^ith 
the  citizens,  and  of  the  nation  with  Foreign  Powers :  the  rela- 
tions of  citizens  amongst  themselves  are  almost  exclusively 
regulated  by  the  sovereignty  of  the  States. 

A  second  and  still  greater  cause  of  the  preponderance  of  this 
court  ma}'  be  adduced.  In  the  nations  of  Europe  the  courts  of 
justice  are  only  called  upon  to  try  the  controversies  of  private 
individuals ;  but  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  sum- 
mons sovereign  powers  to  its  bar.    When  the  clerk  of  the  court 


1^'- 


I 


150 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


advances  on  the  steps  of  the  tribunal,  and  simply  says,  "  The 
State  of  New  York  versus  the  State  of  Ohio,"  it  is  impossible 
not  to  feel  that  the  Court  which  he  addresses  is  no  ordinary 
body ;  and  when  it  is  recollected  that  one  of  these  parties  repre- 
sents one  million,  and  the  other  two  millions  of  men,  one  is 
struck  by  the  responsibility  of  the  seven  judges  whose  decision 
is  about  to  satisfy  or  to  disappoint  so  large  a  number  of  their 
fellow-citizens. 

The  peace,  the  prosperity,  and  the  very  existence  of  the 
Union  are  vested  in  the  hands  of  the  seven  judges.  Without 
their  active  co-operation  the  Constitution  would  be  a  dead  let- 
ter: the  Executive  appeals  to  them  for  assistance  against  the 
encroachments  of  the  legislative  powers;  the  Legislature  de- 
mands their  protection  from  the  designs  of  the  Executive ;  they 
defend  the  Union  from  the  disobedience  of  the  States,  the  States 
from  the  exaggerated  claims  of  the  Union,  the  public  interest 
against  the  interests  of  private  citizens,  and  the  conservative 
spirit  of  order  against  the  fleeting  innovations  of  democracy. 
Their  power  is  enormous,  but  it  is  clothed  in  the  authority  of 
public  opinion.  They  are  the  all-powerful  guardians  of  a  people 
which  respects  law,  but  they  would  be  impotent  against  popular 
neglect  or  popular  contempt.  The  force  of  public  opinion  is  the 
most  intractable  of  agents,  because  its  exact  limits  cannot  be 
defined ;  and  it  is  not  less  dangerous  to  exceed  than  to  remain 
below  the  boundary  prescribed. 

The  Federal  judges  must  not  only  be  good  citizens,  and  men 
possessed  of  that  information  and  integrity  which  are  indis- 
pensable to  magistrates,  but  they  must  be  statesmen — politi- 
cians, not  unread  in  the  signs  of  the  times,  not  afraid  to  brave 
the  obstacles  which  can  be  subdued,  nor  slow  to  turn  aside  such 
encroaching  elements  as  may  threaten  the  supremacy  of  the 
Union  and  the  obedience  which  is  due  to  the  laws. 

The  President,  who  exercises  a  limited  power,  may  err  with- 
out causing  great  mischief  in  the  State.  Congress  may  decide 
amiss  without  destroying  the  Union,  because  the  electoral  body 
in  which  Congress  originates  may  cause  it  to  retract  its  decision 
by  changing  its  members.  But  if  the  Supreme  Court  is  ever 
composed  of  imprudent  men  or  bad  citizens,  the  Union  may  be 
plunged  into  anarchy  or  civil  war. 

The  real  cause  of  this  danger,  however,  does  not  He  in  the 
constitution  of  the  tribunal,  but  in  the  very  nature  of  Federal 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


»5« 


Governments.  We  have  ibserved  that  in  confederate  peoples  it 
is  especially  necessary  to  consolidate  the  judicial  authority,  be- 
cause in  no  other  nations  do  those  independent  persons  who  are 
able  to  cope  with  the  social  body  exist  in  greater  power  or  in  a 
better  condition  to  resist  the  physical  strength  of  the  Govern- 
ment. But  the  more  a  power  requires  to  be  strengthened,  the 
more  extensive  and  independent  it  must  be  made;  and  the 
dangers  which  its  abuse  may  create  are  heightened  by  its  inde- 
pendence and  its  strength.  The  source  of  the  evil  is  not,  there- 
fore, in  the  constitution  of  the  power,  but  in  the  constitution  of 
those  States  which  render  its  existence  necessary. 

In  what  Respects  the  Federal  Constitution  is  Superior 
to  that  of  the  states 

In  what  respects  the  Constitution  of  the  Union  can  be  compared  to  that 
of  the  States — Superiority  of  the  Constitution  of  the  Union  attribu- 
table to  the  wisdom  of  the  Federal  legislators — ^Legislature  of  the 
Union  less  dependent  on  the  people  than  that  of  the  States — Ex- 
ecutive power  more  independent  in  its  sphere — ^Judicial  power  less 
subjected  to  the  inclinations  of  the  majority — Practical  consequence 
of  these  facts — The  dangers  inherent  in  a  democratic  government 
eluded  by  the  Federal  legislators,  and  increased  by  the  legislators 
of  the  States. 

The  Federal  Constitution  differs  essentially  from  that  of  the 
States  in  the  ends  which  it  is  intended  to  accomplish,  but  in  the 
means  by  which  these  ends  are  promoted  a  greater  analogy  ex- 
ists between  them.  The  objects  of  the  Governments  are  differ- 
ent, but  their  forms  are  the  same ;  and  in  this  special  point  of 
view  there  is  some  advantage  in  comparing  them  together. 

I  am  of  opinion  that  the  Federal  Constitution  is  superior  to 
all  the  Constitutions  of  the  States,  for  several  reasons. 

The  present  Constitution  of  the  Union  was  formed  at  a  later 
period  than  those  of  the  majority  of  the  States,  and  it  may  have 
derived  some  ameliorations  from  past  experience.  But  we  shall 
be  led  to  acknowledge  that  this  is  only  a  secondary  cause  of  its 
superiority,  when  we  recollect  that  eleven  new  States"  have 
been  added  to  the  American  Confederation  since  the  promulga- 
tion of  the  Federal  Constitution,  and  that  these  new  republics 
have  always  rather  exaggerated  than  avoided  the  defects  which 
existed  in  the  former  Constitutions. 

n  [The  number  of  States  has  now  risen  to  46  (1874),  besides  the  District  of 
Columbia.] 


1       ' 


153 


DK  TOCQUEVILLE 


s 


I    Jifr 


Tlu'  chief  cause  of  the  superiority  of  tlie  Federal  C'otistituiion 
lay  in  the  character  of  the  legislators  who  coiiiposetl  it.  At 
the  time  when  it  was  formed  the  daiij;ers  of  the  Confederation 
were  imminent,  and  its  ruin  seemed  inevitable.  In  this  ex- 
tremity the  people  chose  the  men  who  most  deservd  the  es- 
teem, rather  than  those  who  had  gained  the  affections,  of  the 
country.  I  have  already  observed  that  distinguished  as  almost 
all  the  legislators  of  the  Union  were  for  their  inteiligviKi-,  they 
were  .s»'ll  more  so  for  their  patriotism.  They  had  all  been  nur- 
tured at  a  time  when  the  .spirit  of  liberty  was  braced  by  a  con- 
tinual struggle  again.st  a  powerful  and  predominant  authority. 
When  the  contest  was  terminated,  whilst  the  excited  passions 
of  the  populace  persisted  in  warring  with  dangers  which  had 
ceased  to  threaten  them,  these  men  stopped  short  in  their  career ; 
they  cast  a  calmer  and  more  penetrating  look  upon  the  country 
which  was  now  their  own  ;  they  perceived  that  the  war  of  inde- 
pendence was  definitely  ended,  and  that  the  only  dangers  which 
America  had  to  fear  were  those  which  might  result  from  the 
abuse  of  the  freedom  she  had  won.  They  had  the  courage  to 
say  what  they  believed  to  be  true,  because  they  were  animated 
by  a  warm  and  sincere  love  of  liberty ;  and  they  venturctl  to  pro- 
pose restrictions,  because  they  were  resolutely  opposed  to  de- 
struction.o 

The  greater  number  of  the  Constitutions  of  the  States  assign 
one  year  for  the  duration  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  and 


o  Al  this  time  Aloxntidcr  Hamilton, 
who  wr.s  one  o(  the  priiiciii.il  (uunders 
of  tlic  C'onstitution,  ventured  to  express 
the  folIowinR  scirtiments  in  "  The  FcU- 
cMlisf,"  No.  71:— 

"  There  arc  some  who  wouhl  he  in- 
clitu'il  to  rcRnnl  the  servile  pli.nncy  of 
the  Kxccutive  vo  a  prevailinR  current, 
cither  in  the  community  or  in  the  Lctris- 
l.iture,  as  its  best  recommendation.  Hut 
such  men  entertain  very  crude  notions, 
as  well  of  the  purposes  for  which  rov- 
ernment  was  instituted  as  of  the  true 
means  by  which  the  public  happiness 
may  he  promoted.  The  Repunlican 
principle  demands  th.it  the  de'U)trative 
sense  of  the  community  should  Rovern 
the  conduct  of  those  to  whom  ♦.hey  en- 
trust the  management  of  their  affairs: 
hut  it  d'-es  not  require  an  unqualified 
complaisance  to  every  sudden  breeze  tif 
passion,  or  to  every  transient  impulse 
which  the  people  may  receive  from  the 
arts  of  men  who  flatter  their  prejudices 
to  betray  their  interests.  It  is  a  just 
observation,  that  the  people  commonly 
iti(i-m/  the  public  good.  This  often  applies 
to  their  very  errors.  Hut  their  good 
sense  would  despise  the  adulator  who 


should  |>refcnd  that  they  always  reason 
rieht  about  the  mcims  of  proniotinK  it. 
They  know  from  experience  that  lliey 
.sometiuH's  err;  and  tlif  wonder  is  tlint 
they  so  seldom  err  as  they  do,  beset,  as 
they  continually  arc,  by  the  wiU-i  of  par- 
asites and  sycophants;  by  the  snares  of 
the  ambitious,  the  avaricious,  the  des- 
perate; by  the  artifices  of  men  who  pos- 
sess their  confidence  more  than  they 
deserve  it,  and  of  those  who  seek  to  pos- 
sess rather  than  to  deserve  it.  VVhcn 
occasions  present  themselves  in  which 
the  interests  of  the  people  are  at  vari- 
ance with  their  inclinations,  it  is  the 
duty  of  persons  whom  they  have  ap- 
pointed to  be  the  guardians  of  those  in- 
terests to  withstand  the  temporary  de- 
Iu.<sion,  in  order  to  give  them  time  and 
opportunity  for  more  cool  and  sed.ite 
reflection.  Instances  might  be  cited  in 
which  a  conduct  of  this  kind  has  saved 
the  people  from  very  fatal  consequences 
of  their  own  mistakes,  and  has  procured 
lasting  monuments  of  their  gratitude  to 
the  men  who  had  courage  and  magnani- 
mity enough  to  serve  them  at  the  peril 
of  their  displeasure." 


DliMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


»53 


two  years  for  that  of  the  Senate ;  so  that  members  of  the  legis- 
lative hufly  are  constantly  and  narrowly  tied  down  by  the  slight- 
est desires  of  iheir  awistitucnls.  The  legislators  of  the  Union 
W'Tc  of  opinion  that  this  excessive  depetidence  of  the  Legisla- 
ture tended  to  alter  the  nature  of  the  main  consequences  of  the 
representative  system,  since  it  vested  the  source,  not  only  of 
authority,  but  of  government,  in  the  peojjie.  They  increased 
the  length  of  the  time  for  which  the  repri  sentatives  were  re- 
turned, in  order  to  give  them  freer  scope  for  the  exercise  of  their 
own  judgment. 

The  Federal  Constitution,  as  well  as  the  Constitutions  of  the 
different  States,  divided  the  legislative  body  into  two  branches. 
Ikit  in  the  States  these  two  branches  were  composed  of  the 
same  elements,  afid  eki  ted  in  the  .^amc  maimer.  The  con.se- 
quciice  was  that  the  passions  and  incli'  is  of  the  populace 

were  as  rapidly  and  as  energetically  rep  iled  in  (jne  chaml>er 
as  in  the  other,  and  that  laws  were  made  with  all  the  charac- 
teristics of  violence  and  precipitalii-n.  l.y  the  Federal  Con.stitu- 
tion  the  two  houses  originate  in  like  manner  in  the  choice  of  the 
peo])le;  but  the  conditions  of  eligibility  and  the  mode  of  elec- 
tion were  changed,  to  the  end  that,  if,  as  is  the  case  in  certain 
nations,  one  branch  of  the  Legislature  represents  the  same  in- 
terests as  the  other,  it  may  at  least  represent  a  superior  degree 
of  intelligence  and  discretion.  A  mature  age  was  made  one  of 
the  conditions  of  the  senatorial  dignity,  and  the  Upper  House 
was  chosen  by  an  elected  assembly  of  a  limited  number  of  mem- 
bers. 

To  concentrate  the  whole  social  force  in  the  hands  of  the 
legislative  body  is  the  natural  tendency  of  democracies ;  for  as 
this  is  the  power  which  emanates  the  most  directly  from  the 
people,  it  is  made  to  participate  most  fully  in  the  preponderating 
authority  of  the  multitude,  and  it  is  naturally  led  to  monopolize 
every  species  of  influence.  This  concentration  is  at  once  preju- 
dicial to  a  well-conducted  administration,  and  favorable  to  the 
despotism  of  the  majority.  The  legislators  of  the  States  fre- 
quently yielded  to  these  democratic  propensities,  which  were  in- 
variably and  courageously  resisted  by  the  founders  of  the  Union. 

In  the  States  the  executive  power  is  vested  in  the  hands  of  a 
magistrate,  who  is  apparently  placed  upon  a  level  with  the  Leg- 
islature, but  who  is  in  reality  nothing  more  than  the  blind  agent 
and  the  passive  instrument  of  its  decisions.    He  can  derive  no 


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DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


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I.  t 


influence  from  the  duration  of  his  functions,  which  terminate 
with  the  revolving  year,  or  from  the  exercise  of  prerogatives 
which  can  scarcely  be  said  to  exist.  The  Legislature  can  con- 
demn him  to  inaction  by  intrusting  the  execution  of  the  laws 
to  special  committees  of  its  own  members,  and  can  annul  his 
temporary  dignity  by  depriving  him  of  his  salary.  The  Federal 
Constitution  vests  all  the  privileges  and  all  the  responsibility  of 
the  executive  power  in  a  single  individual.  The  duration  of  the 
Presidency  is  fixed  at  four  years ;  the  salary  of  the  individual 
who  fills  that  office  cannot  be  altered  during  the  term  of  his 
functions ;  he  is  protected  by  a  body  of  official  dependents,  and 
armed  with  a  suspensive  veto.  In  short,  every  effort  was  made 
to  confer  a  strong  and  independent  position  upon  the  executive 
authority  within  the  limits  which  had  been  prescribed  to  it. 

In  the  Constitutions  of  all  the  States  the  judicial  power  is 
that  which  remains  the  most  independent  of  the  legislative  au- 
thority; nevertheless,  in  all  the  States  the  Legislature  has  re- 
served to  itself  the  right  of  regulating  the  emoluments  of  the 
judges,  a  practice  which  necessarily  subjects  these  magistrates 
to  its  immediate  influence.  In  some  States  the  judges  are  only 
temporarily  appointed,  which  deprives  them  of  a  great  portion 
of  their  power  and  their  freedom.  In  others  the  legislative  and 
judicial  powers  are  entirely  confounded;  thus  the  Senate  of 
New  York,  for  instance,  constitutes  in  certain  cases  the  Su- 
perior Court  of  the  State.  The  Federal  Constitution,  on  the 
other  hand,  carefully  separates  the  judicial  authority  from  all 
external  influences ;  and  it  provides  for  the  independence  of  the 
judges,  by  declaring  that  their  salary  shall  not  be  altered,  and 
that  their  functions  shall  be  inalienable. 

The  practical  consequences  of  these  different  systems  may 
easily  be  perceived.  An  attentive  observer  will  soon  remark 
that  the  business  of  the  Union  is  incomparably  better  con- 
ducted than  that  of  any  individual  State.  The  conduct  of  the 
Federal  Government  is  more  fair  and  more  temperate  than  that 
of  the  States,  its  designs  are  more  fraught  with  wisdom,  its  pro- 
jects are  more  durable  and  more  skilfully  combined,  its  meas- 
ures are  put  into  execution  with  more  vigor  and  consistency. 

I  recapitulate  the  substance  of  this  chapter  in  a  few  words : 
The  existence  of  democracies  is  threatened  by  two  dangers, 
viz.,  the  complete  subjection  of  the  legislative  body  to  the  ca- 
prices of  the  electoral  body,  and  the  concentration  of  all  the 


V. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


HS 


powers  of  the  Government  in  the  legislative  authority.  The 
growth  of  these  evils  has  been  encouraged  by  the  policy  of  the 
legislators  of  the  States,  but  it  has  been  resisted  by  the  legisla- 
tors of  the  Union  by  every  means  which  lay  within  their  con- 
trol. 

Characteristics  which  Distinguish  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution OF  the  United  States  of  America  from  all 
other  Federal  Constitutions 

American  Union  appears  to  resemble  all  other  confederations — Never- 
theless its  effects  are  different — Reason  of  this — Distinctions  between 
the  Union  and  all  other  confederations — ^The  American  Govern- 
ment not  a  federal  but  an  imperfect  national  Government. 

The  United  States  of  America  do  not  afford  either  the  first  or 
the  only  instance  of  ccnfederate  States,  several  of  which  have 
existed  in  modern  Europe,  without  adverting  to  those  of  an- 
tiquity. Switzerland,  the  Germanic  Empire,  and  the  Republic 
of  the  United  Provinces  either  have  been  or  still  are  confedera- 
tions. In  studying  the  constitutions  of  these  different  coun- 
tries, the  politician  is  surprised  to  observe  that  the  powers  with 
which  they  invested  the  Federal  Government  are  nearly  iden- 
tical with  the  privileges  awarded  by  the  American  Constitution 
to  the  Government  of  the  United  States.  They  confer  upon  the 
central  power  the  same  rights  of  making  peace  and  war,  of  rais- 
ing money  and  troops,  and  of  providing  for  the  general  exigen- 
cies and  the  common  interests  of  the  nation.  Nevertheless  the 
Federal  Government  of  these  diflferent  peoples  has  always  been 
as  remarkable  for  its  weakness  and  inefficiency  as  that  of  the 
Union  is  for  its  vigorous  and  enterprising  spirit.  Again,  the 
first  American  Confederation  perished  through  the  excessive 
weakness  of  its  Government ;  and  this  weak  Government  was, 
notwithstanding,  in  possession  of  rights  even  more  extensive 
than  those  of  the  Federal  Government  of  the  present  day.  But 
the  more  recent  Constitution  of  the  United  States  contains  cer- 
tain principles  which  exercise  a  most  important  influence,  al- 
though they  do  not  at  once  strike  the  observer. 

This  Constitution,  which  may  at  first  sight  be  confounded 
with  the  federal  constitutions  which  preceded  it,  rests  upon 
a  novel  theory,  which  may  be  considered  as  a  great  invention 
in  modern  political  science.  In  all  the  confederations  which 
had  been  formed  before  the  American  Constitution  of  1789  the 


!i    i 


V     ii 


^56 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


allied  States  agreed  to  obey  the  injunctions  of  a  Federal  Gov- 
ernment ;  but  they  reserved  to  themselves  the  right  of  ordain- 
ing and  enforcing  the  execution  oi  the  laws  of  the  Union.  The 
American  States  which  combined  in  1789  agreed  that  the  Fed- 
eral Government  should  not  only  dictate  the  laws,  but  that  it 
should  execute  it  own  enactments.  In  both  cases  the  right  is 
the  same,  but  the  exercise  of  the  right  is  different ;  and  this  al- 
teration produced  the  most  momentous  consequences. 

In  all  the  confederations  which  had  been  formed  before  the 
American  Union  the  Federal  Government  demanded  its  sup- 
plies at  the  hands  of  the  separate  Governments;  and  if  the 
measure  it  prescribed  was  onerous  to  any  one  of  those  bodies 
means  were  found  to  evade  its  claims :  if  the  State  was  powerful, 
it  had  recourse  to  arms ;  if  it  was  weak,  it  connived  at  the  re- 
sistance which  the  law  of  the  Union,  its  sovereign,  met  with,  and 
resorted  to  inaction  under  the  plea  of  inability.  Under  these 
circumstances  one  of  the  two  alternatives  has  invariably  oc- 
curred ;  either  the  most  preponderant  of  the  allied  peoples  has 
assumed  the  privileges  of  the  Federal  authority  and  ruled  all 
the  States  in  its  name,/'  or  the  Federal  Government  has  been 
abandoned  by  its  natural  supporters,  anarchy  has  arisen  be- 
tween the  confederates,  and  the  Union  has  lost  all  powers  of 
action.9 

In  America  the  subjects  of  the  Union  are  not  States,  but 
private  citizens :  the  national  Government  levies  a  tax,  not  upon 
the  State  of  Massachusetts,  but  upon  each  inhabitant  of  Massa- 
chusetts. All  former  confederate  governments  presided  over 
communities,  but  that  of  the  Union  rules  individuals ;  its  force 
is  not  borrowed,  but  self-derived ;  and  it  is  served  by  its  own 
civil  and  military  officers,  by  its  own  army,  and  its  own  courts 
of  justice.  It  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  spirit  of  the  nation, 
the  passions  of  the  multitude,  and  the  provincial  prejudices  of 
each  State  tend  singularly  to  diminish  the  authority  of  a  Fed- 
eral authority  thus  constituted,  and  to  facilitate  the  means  of 
resistance  to  its  mandates ;  but  the  comparative  weakness  of  a 
restricted  sovereignty  is  an  evil  inherent  in  the  Federal  sys- 
tem.   In  America,  each  State  has  fewer  opportunities  of  re- 


p  This  was  the  case  in  Greece,  when 
Philip  undertook  to  execute  the  decree 
of  the  Amphtctyons;  in  the  Low  Coun- 
tries, where  the  province  of  Holland  al- 
ways gave  the  law;  and,  in  our  own 
time,  in  the  Germanic  Confederation, 
in  which  Austria  and  Prussia  assume  a 


great  degree  of  influence  over  the  whole 
country,  in  the  name  of  the  Diet. 

q  Such  has  always  been  the  situation 
of  the  Swiss  Confederation,  which 
would  have  perished  ages  ago  but  for 
the  mutual  jealousies  of  its  neighbors. 


■  ■Xl.J.".  J.«-t.llll 


li  1 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


>S7 


sistance  and  fewer  temptations  to  non-compliance;  nor  can 
such  a  design  be  put  in  execution  (if  indeed  it  be  entertained) 
without  an  open  violation  of  the  laws  of  the  Union,  a  direct  in- 
terruption of  the  ordinary  course  of  justice,  and  a  bold  declara- 
tion of  revolt ;  in  a  word,  without  taking  a  decisive  step  which 
men  hesitate  to  adopt. 

In  all  former  confederations  the  privileges  of  the  Union  fur- 
nished more  elements  of  discord  than  of  power,  since  they  mul- 
tiplied the  claims  of  the  nation  without  augmenting  the  means 
of  enforcing  them :  and  in  accordance  with  this  fact  it  may  be 
remarked  that  the  real  weakness  of  federal  governments  has 
almost  always  been  in  the  exact  ratio  of  their  nominal  power. 
Such  is  not  the  case  in  the  American  Union,  in  which,  as  in  or- 
dinary governments,  the  Federal  Government  has  the  means 
of  enforcing  all  it  is  empowered  to  demand. 

The  human  understanding  more  easily  invents  new  things 
than  new  words,  and  we  are  thence  constrained  to  employ  a 
multitude  of  improper  and  inadequate  expressions.  When  sev- 
eral nations  form  a  permanent  league  and  establish  a  supreme 
authority,  which,  although  it  has  not  the  same  influence  over 
the  members  of  the  community  as  a  national  government,  acts 
upon  each  of  the  Confederate  States  in  a  body,  this  Govern- 
ment, which  is  so  essentially  different  from  all  others,  is  denom- 
inated a  Federal  one.  Another  form  of  society  is  afterwards 
discovered,  in  which  several  peoples  are  fused  into  one  and  the 
same  nation  with  regard  to  certain  common  interests,  although 
they  remain  distinct,  or  at  least  only  confederate,  with  regard 
to  all  their  other  concerns.  In  this  case  the  central  power  acts 
directly  upon  those  whom  it  governs,  whom  it  rules,  and  whom 
it  judges,  in  the  same  manner,  as,  but  in  a  more  limited  circle 
than,  a  national  government.  Here  the  term  Federal  Govern- 
ment is  clearly  no  longer  applicable  to  a  state  of  things  which 
must  be  styled  an  incomplete  national  Government :  a  form  of 
government  has  been  found  out  which  is  neither  exactly  na- 
tional nor  federal ;  but  no  further  progress  has  been  made,  and 
the  new  word  which  will  one  day  designate  this  novel  invention 
does  not  yet  exist. 

The  absence  of  this  new  species  of  confederation  has  been  the 
cause  which  has  brought  all  Unions  to  Civil  War,  to  subjection, 
or  to  a  stagnant  apathy,  and  the  peoples  which  formed  these 
leagues  have  been  either  too  dull  to  discern,  or  too  pusillanimous 


a 


f  If 


''l-i 


II  s 


158 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


to   apply   this  great  remedy.    The  American  Confederation 
perished  by  the  same  defects. 

But  the  Confederate  States  of  America  had  been  long  ac- 
customed to  form  a  portion  of  one  empire  before  they  had  won 
their  independence ;  they  had  not  contracted  the  habit  of  gov- 
erning themselves,  and  their  national  prejudices  had  not  taken 
deep  root  in  their  minds.  Superior  to  the  rest  of  the  world  in 
political  knowledge,  and  sharing  'that  knowledge  equally 
amongst  themselves,  they  were  little  agitated  by  the  passions 
which  generally  oppose  the  extension  of  federal  authority  in  a 
nation,  and  those  passions  were  checked  by  the  wisdom  of  the 
chief  citizens.  The  Americans  applied  the  remedy  with  pru- 
dent firmness  as  soon  as  they  were  conscious  of  the  evil ;  they 
amended  their  laws,  and  they  saved  their  country. 


<     I 


Advantages  of  the  Federal  System  in  General,  and  its 
Special  Utility  in  America 

Happiness  and  freedom  of  small  nations — Power  of  great  nations — 
Great  empires  favorable  to  the  growth  of  civilization — Strength 
often  the  first  element  of  national  prosperity — Aim  of  the  Federal 
system  to  unite  the  twofold  advantages  resulting  from  a  small  and 
from  a  large  territory — Advantages  derived  by  the  United  States 
from  this  system — The  law  adapts  itself  to  the  exigencies  of  the 
population;  population  does  not  conform  to  the  exigencies  of  the 
law — Activity,  amelioration,  love  and  enjoyment  of  freedom  in  the 
American  communities — Public  spirit  of  the  Union  the  abstract  of 
provincial  patriotism — Principles  and  things  circulate  freely  over 
the  territory  of  the  United  States — The  Union  is  happy  and  free  as 
a  little  nation,  and  respected  as  a  great  empire. 

In  small  nations  the  scrutiny  of  society  penetrates  into  every 
part,  and  the  spirit  of  improvement  enters  into  the  most  trifling 
details ;  as  the  ambition  of  the  people  is  necessarily  checked  by 
its  weakness,  all  the  efforts  and  resources  of  the  citizens  are 
turned  to  the  internal  benefit  of  the  community,  and  are  not 
likely  to  evaporate  in  the  fleeting  breath  of  glory.  The  desires 
of  every  individual  are  limited,  because  extraordinary  faculties 
are  rarely  to  be  met  with.  The  gifts  of  an  equal  fortune  render 
the  various  conditions  of  life  uniform,  and  the  manners  of  the 
inhabitants  are  orderly  and  simple.  Thus,  if  one  estimate  the 
gradations  of  popular  morality  and  enlightenment,  we  shall 
generally  find  that  in  small  nations  there  are  more  persons  in 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


tS9 


easy  circumstances,  a  more  numerous  population,  and  a  more 
tranquil  state  of  society,  than  in  great  empires. 

When  tyranny  is  established  in  the  bosom  of  a  small  nation, 
it  is  more  galling  than  elsewhere,  because,  as  it  acts  within  a 
narrow  circle,  every  point  of  that  circle  is  subject  to  its  direct 
influence.  It  supplies  the  place  of  those  great  designs  which  it 
cannot  entertain  by  a  violent  or  an  exasperating  interference  in 
a  multitude  of  minute  details ;  and  it  leaves  the  political  world, 
to  which  it  properly  belongs,  to  meddle  with  the  arrangements 
of  domestic  life.  Tastes  as  well  as  actions  are  to  be  regulated 
at  its  pleasure;  and  the  families  of  the  citizens  as  well  as  the 
affairs  of  the  State  are  to  be  governed  by  its  decisions.  This  in- 
vasion of  rights  occurs,  however,  but  seldom,  and  freedom  is  in 
truth  the  natural  state  of  small  communities.  The  temptations 
which  the  Government  offers  to  ambition  are  too  weak,  and  the 
resources  of  private  individuals  are  too  slender,  for  the  sovereign 
power  easily  to  fall  within  the  grasp  of  a  single  citizen ;  and 
should  such  an  event  have  occurred,  the  subjects  of  the  State 
can  without  difficulty  overthrow  the  tyrant  and  his  oppression 
by  a  simultaneous  effort. 

Small  nations  have  therefore  ever  been  the  cradle  of  political 
liberty ;  and  the  fact  that  many  of  them  have  lost  their  immu- 
nities by  extending  their  dominion  shows  that  the  freedom  they 
enjoyed  was  more  a  consequence  of  the  inferior  size  than  of  the 
character  of  the  people. 

The  history  of  the  world  affords  no  instance  of  a  great  nation 
retaining  the  form  of  republican  government  for  a  long  series 
of  years,**  and  this  has  led  to  the  conclusion  that  such  a  state 
of  things  is  impracticable.  For  my  own  part,  I  cannot  but  cen- 
sure the  imprudence  of  attempting  to  limit  the  possible  and  to 
judge  the  future  on  the  part  of  a  being  who  is  hourly  deceived 
by  the  most  palpable  realities  of  life,  and  who  is  constantly  taken 
by  surprise  in  the  circumstances  with  which  he  is  most  familiar. 
But  it  may  be  advanced  with  confidence  that  the  existence  of 
a  great  republic  will  always  be  exposed  to  far  greater  perils 
than  that  of  a  small  one. 

All  the  passions  which  are  most  fatal  to  republican  institu- 
tions spread  with  an  increasing  territory,  whilst  the  virtues 
which  maintain  their  dignity  do  not  augment  in  the  same  pro- 

r  I  do  not  speak  o{  a  confederation  of  small  republics,  but  of  a  great  con- 
solidated Republic. 


ft  A 

ii 


iy 


11 


•|! 


i6o 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


portion.  The  ambition  of  the  citizens  increases  with  the  power 
of  the  State ;  the  strength  of  parties  with  the  importance  of  the 
ends  they  have  in  view ;  but  that  devotion  to  the  common  weal 
which  is  the  surest  check  on  destructive  passions  is  not  stronger 
in  a  large  than  in  a  small  republic.  It  might,  indeed,  be  proved 
without  difficulty  that  it  is  less  powerful  and  less  sincere.  The 
arrogance  of  wealth  and  the  dejection  of  wretchedness,  capital 
cities  of  unwonted  extent,  a  lax  morality,  a  vulgar  egotism,  and 
a  great  confusion  of  interests,  are  the  dangers  which  almost  in- 
variably arise  from  the  magnitude  of  States.  But  several  of 
these  evils  are  scarcely  prejudicial  to  a  monarchy,  and  some  of 
them  contribute  to  maintain  its  existence.  In  monarchical 
States  the  strength  of  the  government  is  its  own ;  it  may  use, 
but  it  does  not  depend  on,  the  community,  and  the  authority  of 
the  prince  is  proportioned  to  the  prosperity  of  the  nation; 
but  the  only  security  which  a  republican  government  possesses 
against  these  evils  lies  in  the  support  of  the  majority.  This 
support  is  not,  however,  proportionably  greater  in  a  large  re- 
public than  it  is  in  a  small  one ;  and  thus,  whilst  the  means  of 
attack  perpetually  increase  both  in  number  and  in  influence,  the 
power  of  resistance  remains  the  same,  or  it  may  rather  be  said 
to  diminish,  since  the  propensities  and  interests  of  the  people 
are  diversified  by  the  increase  of  the  population,  and  the  diffi- 
culty of  forming  a  compact  majority  is  constantly  augmented. 
It  has  been  observed,  moreover,  that  the  intensity  of  human 
passions  is  heightened,  not  only  by  the  importance  of  the  end 
which  they  propose  to  attain,  but  by  the  multitude  of  individ- 
uals who  are  animated  by  them  at  the  same  time.  Every  one 
has  had  occasion  to  remark  that  his  emotions  in  the  midst  of  a 
sympathizing  crowd  are  far  greater  than  those  which  he  would 
have  felt  in  solitude.  In  great  republics  the  impetus  of  politi- 
cal passion  is  irresistible,  not  only  because  it  aims  at  gigantic 
purposes,  but  because  it  is  felt  and  shared  by  millions  of  men  at 
the  same  time. 

It  may  therefore  be  asserted  as  a  general  proposition  that 
nothing  is  more  opposed  to  the  well-being  and  the  freedom  of 
man  than  vast  empires.  Nevertheless  it  is  important  to  ac- 
knowledge the  peculiar  advantages  of  great  States.  For  the 
very  reason  which  renders  the  desire  of  power  more  intense  in 
these  communities  than  amongst  ordinary  men,  the  love  of 
glory  is  also  more  prominent  in  the  hearts  of  a  class  of  citizens. 


'}> 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


i6i 


who  regard  the  applause  of  a  great  people  as  a  reward  worthy 
of  their  exertions,  and  an  elevating  encouragement  to  man. 
If  we  would  learn  why  it  is  that  great  nations  contribute  more 
powerfully  to  the  spread  of  human  improvement  than  small 
States,  we  shall  discover  an  adequate  cause  in  the  rapid  and 
energetic  circulation  of  ideas,  and  in  those  great  cities  which  are 
the  intellectual  centres  where  all  the  rays  of  human  genius  are 
reflected  and  combined.  To  this  it  may  be  added  that  most 
important  discoveries  demand  a  display  of  national  power 
which  the  Government  of  a  small  State  is  unable  to  make ;  in 
great  nations  the  Government  entertains  a  greater  number  of 
general  notions,  and  is  more  completely  disengaged  from  the 
routine  of  precedent  and  the  egotism  of  local  prejudice ;  its  de- 
signs are  conceived  with  more  talent,  and  executed  with  more 
boldness. 

In  time  of  peace  the  well-being  of  small  nations  is  undoubt- 
edly more  general  and  more  complete,  but  they  are  apt  to  suffer 
more  acutely  from  the  calamities  of  war  than  those  great  em- 
pires whose  distant  frontiers  may  for  ages  avert  the  presence 
of  the  danger  from  the  mass  of  the  people,  which  is  therefore 
more  frequently  afflicted  than  ruined  by  the  evil. 

But  in  this  matter,  as  in  many  others,  the  argument  derived 
from  the  necessity  of  the  case  predominates  over  all  others. 
If  none  but  small  nations  existed,  I  do  not  doubt  that  mankind 
would  be  more  happy  and  more  free ;  but  the  existence  of  great 
nations  is  unavoidable. 

This  consideration  introduces  the  element  of  physical 
strength  as  a  condition  of  national  prosperity.  It  profits  a  peo- 
ple but  little  to  be  affluent  and  free  if  it  is  perpetually  exposed  to 
be  pillaged  or  subjugated ;  the  number  of  its  manufactures  and 
the  extent  of  its  commerce  are  of  small  advantage  if  another  na- 
tion has  the  empire  of  the  seas  anJ  si- ves  the  law  in  all  the  mar- 
kets of  the  globe.  Small  nations  aie  often  impoverished,  not 
because  they  are  small,  but  because  they  are  weak ;  the  great 
empires  prosper  less  because  they  are  great  than  because  they 
are  strong.  Physical  strength  is  therefore  one  of  the  first  con- 
ditions of  the  happiness  and  even  of  the  existence  of  nations. 
Hence  it  occurs  that,  unless  very  peculiar  circumstances  inter- 
vene, small  nations  are  always  united  to  large  empires  in  the 
end,  either  by  force  or  by  their  own  consent :  yet  I  am  unac- 

VOL.   I.— II 


■<  ■! 


. 


i6a 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


.  V 


quaintcd  with  a  more  deplorable  spectacle  than  that  of  a  people 
unable  either  to  defend  or  to  maintain  its  independence. 

The  Federal  system  was  created  with  the  intention  of  combin- 
ing the  different  advantages  which  result  from  the  greater  and 
the  lesser  extent  of  nations;  and  a  single  glance  over  the 
United  States  of  America  suffices  to  discover  the  advantages 
which  they  have  derived  from  its  adoption. 

In  great  centralized  nations  the  legislator  is  obliged  to  im- 
part a  character  of  uniformity  to  the  laws  which  does  not  always 
suit  the  diversity  of  customs  and  of  districts ;  as  he  takes  no 
cognizance  of  special  cases,  he  can  only  proceed  upon  general 
principles;  and  the  population  is  obliged  to  conform  to  the 
exigencies  of  the  legislation,  since  the  legislation  cannot  adapt 
itself  to  the  exigencies  and  the  customs  of  the  population,  which 
is  the  cause  of  endless  trouble  and  misery.  This  disadvantage 
does  not  exist  in  confederations.  Congress  regulates  the  prin- 
cipal measures  of  the  national  Government,  and  all  the  details 
of  the  administration  are  reserved  to  the  provincial  legislatures. 
It  is  impossible  to  imagine  how  much  this  division  of  sover- 
eignty contributes  to  the  well-being  of  each  of  the  States  which 
compose  the  Union.  In  these  small  communities,  which  are 
never  agitated  by  the  desire  of  aggrandizement  or  the  cares  of 
self-defence,  all  public  authority  and  private  energy  is  employed 
in  internal  amelioration.  The  central  government  of  each 
State,  which  is  in  immediate  juxtaposition  to  the  citizens,  is 
daily  apprised  of  the  wants  which  arise  in  society ;  and  new  pro- 
jects are  proposed  every  year,  which  are  discussed  either  at 
town  meetings  or  by  the  legislature  of  the  State,  and  which  are 
transmitted  by  the  press  to  stimulate  the  zeal  and  to  excite  the 
interest  of  the  citizens.  This  spirit  of  amelioration  is  constantly 
alive  in  the  American  republics,  without  compromising  their 
tranquillity ;  the  ambition  of  power  yields  to  the  less  refined  and 
less  dangerous  love  of  comfort.  It  is  generally  believed  in 
America  that  the  existence  and  the  permanence  of  the  republi- 
can form  of  government  in  the  New  World  depend  upon  the  ex- 
istence and  the  permanence  of  the  Federal  system ;  and  it  is 
not  unusual  to  attribute  a  large  share  of  the  misfortunes  which 
have  befallen  the  new  States  of  South  America  to  the  injudicious 
erection  of  great  republics,  instead  of  a  divided  and  confederate 
sovereignty. 

It  is  incontestably  true  that  the  love  and  the  habits  of  repub- 


ARi 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


163 


Hcan  government  in  the  United  States  were  engendered  in  the 
townships  and  in  the  provincial  assemblies.  In  a  small  State, 
like  that  of  Connecticut  for  instance,  where  cutting  a  canal  or 
laying  down  a  road  is  a  momentous  political  question,  where 
the  State  has  no  army  to  pay  and  no  wars  to  carry  on,  and 
where  much  wealth  and  much  honor  cannot  be  bestowed  upon 
the  chief  citizens,  no  form  of  government  can  be  more  natural 
or  more  appropriate  than  that  of  a  republic.  But  it  is  this  same 
republican  spirit,  it  is  these  manners  and  customs  of  a  free  peo- 
ple, which  are  engendered  and  nurtured  in  the  different  States, 
to  be  afterwards  applied  to  the  country  at  large.  The  public 
spirit  of  the  Union  is,  so  to  speak,  nothing  more  than  an  ab- 
stract of  the  patriotic  zeal  of  the  provinces.  Every  citizen  of 
the  United  States  transfuses  his  attachment  to  his  little  republic 
in  the  common  store  of  American  patriotism.  In  defending  the 
Union  he  defends  the  increasing  prosperity  of  his  own  district, 
the  right  of  conducting  its  affairs,  and  the  hope  of  causing 
measures  of  improvement  to  be  adopted  which  may  be  favor- 
able to  his  own  interest ;  and  these  are  motives  which  are  wont 
to  stir  men  more  readily  than  the  general  interests  of  the  coun- 
try and  the  glory  of  the  nation. 

On  the  other  hand,  if  the  temper  and  the  manners  of  the  in- 
habitants especially  fitted  them  to  promote  the  welfare  of  a 
great  republic,  the  Federal  system  smoothed  the  obstacles  which 
they  might  have  encountered.  The  confederation  of  all  the 
American  States  presents  none  of  the  ordinary  disadvantages 
resulting  from  great  agglomerations  of  men.  The  Union  is  a 
great  republic  in  extent,  but  the  paucity  of  objects  for  which  its 
Government  provides  assimilates  it  to  a  small  State.  Its  acts 
are  important,  but  they  are  rare.  As  the  sovereignty  of  the 
Union  is  limited  and  incomplete,  its  exercise  is  not  incompati- 
ble with  liberty ;  for  it  does  not  excite  those  insatiable  desires 
of  fame  and  power  which  have  proved  so  fatal  to  great  repub- 
lics. As  there  is  no  common  centre  to  the  country,  vast  capi- 
tal cities,  colossal  wealth,  abject  poverty,  and  sudden  revolu- 
tions are  alike  unknown ;  and  political  passion,  instead  of 
spreading  over  the  land  like  a  torrent  of  desolation,  spends  its 
strength  against  the  interests  and  the  individual  passions  of 
every  State. 

Nevertheless,  all  commodities  and  ideas  circulate  through- 
out the  Union  as  freely  as  in  a  country  inhabited  by  one  people. 


I  I 


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DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


!il 


Nothing  checks  the  spirit  of  enterprise.  Government  avails 
itself  of  the  assistance  of  all  who  have  talents  or  knowledge  to 
serve  it.  Within  the  frontiers  of  the  Union  the  profoundest 
peace  prevails,  as  within  the  heart  of  some  great  empire; 
abroad,  it  ranks  with  the  most  powerful  nations  of  the  earth ; 
two  thousand  miles  of  coast  are  open  to  the  commerce  of  the 
world ;  and  as  it  possesses  the  keys  of  the  globe,  its  flags  is  re- 
spected in  the  most  remote  seas.  The  Union  is  as  happy  an  i  as 
free  as  a  small  people,  and  as  glorious  and  as  strong  as  a  great 
nation. 

Why  the  Federal  System  is  Not  Adapted  to  All  Peoples, 
AND  How  the  Anglo-Americans  Were  Enabled  to 
Adopt  It 

Every  Federal  system  contains  defects  which  bafHe  the  efforts  of  the 
legislator — The  Federal  system  is  complex — It  demands  a  daily 
exercise  of  discretion  on  the  part  of  the  citizens — Practical  knowl- 
edge of  government  common  amongst  the  Americans — Relative 
weakness  of  the  Government  of  the  Union,  another  defect  inherent 
in  the  Federal  system — The  Americans  have  diminished  without 
remedying  it — The  sovereignty  of  the  separate  States  apparently 
weaker,  but  really  stronger,  than  that  of  the  Union— Why? — Natural 
causes  of  union  must  exist  between  confederate  peoples  besides  the 
laws — What  these  causes  are  amongst  the  Anglo-Americans — Maine 
and  Georgia,  separated  by  a  distance  of  a  thousand  miles,  more 
naturally  united  than  Normandy  and  Brittany — War,  the  main  peril 
of  confederations — This  proved  even  by  the  example  of  the  United 
States — The  Union  has  no  great  wars  to  fear — Why? — Dangers  to 
which  Europeans  would  be  exposed  if  they  adopted  the  Federal  sys- 
tem of  the  Americans. 

When  a  legislator  succeeds,  after  persevering  efforts,  in  ex- 
ercising an  indirect  influence  upon  the  destiny  of  nations,  his 
genius  is  lauded  by  mankind,  whilst,  in  point  of  fact,  the  geo- 
graphical position  of  the  country  which  he  is  unable  to  change, 
a  social  condition  which  arose  without  his  co-operation,  man- 
ners and  opinions  which  he  cannot  trace  to  their  source,  and  an 
origin  with  which  he  is  unacquainted,  exercise  so  irresistible  an 
influence  over  the  courses  of  society  that  he  is  himself  borne 
away  by  the  current,  after  an  ineffectual  resistance.  Like  the 
navigator,  he  may  direct  the  vessel  which  bears  him  along,  but 
he  can  neither  change  its  structure,  nor  raise  the  winds,  nor  lull 
the  waters  which  swell  beneath  him. 

I  have  shown  the  advantages  which  the  Americans  derive 


lis 


miSm 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


«65 


from  their  federal  system ;  it  remains  for  me  to  point  out  the 
circumstances  which  rendered  that  system  practicable,  as  its 
benefits  are  not  to  be  enjoyed  by  all  nations.  The  incidental 
defects  of  the  Federal  system  which  originate  in  the  laws  may 
be  corrected  by  the  skill  of  the  legislator,  but  there  are  further 
evils  inherent  in  the  system  which  cannot  be  counteracted  by 
the  peoples  which  adopt  it.  These  nations  must  therefore  find 
the  strength  necessary  to  support  the  natural  imperfections  of 
their  Government. 

The  most  prominent  evil  of  all  Federal  systems  is  the  very 
complex  nature  of  the  means  they  employ.  Two  sovereignties 
are  necessarily  in  presence  of  each  other.  The  legislator  may 
simplify  and  equalize  the  action  of  these  two  sovereignties,  by 
limiting  each  of  them  to  a  sphere  of  authority  accurately  de- 
fined ;  but  he  cannot  combine  them  into  one,  or  prevent  them 
from  coming  into  collision  at  certain  points.  The  Federal  sys- 
tem therefore  rests  upon  a  theory  which  is  necessarily  com- 
plicated, and  which  demands  the  daily  exercise  of  a  considerable 
share  of  discretion  on  the  part  of  those  it  governs. 

A  propositon  must  be  plain  to  be  adopted  by  the  understand- 
ing of  a  people.  A  false  notion  which  is  clear  and  precise  will 
always  meet  with  a  greater  number  of  adherents  in  the  world 
than  a  true  principle  which  is  obscure  or  involved.  Hence  it 
arises  that  parties,  which  are  like  small  communities  in  the 
heart  of  the  nation,  invariably  adopt  some  principle  or  some 
name  as  a  symbol,  which  very  inadequately  represents  the  end 
they  have  in  view  and  the  means  which  are  at  their  disposal, 
but  without  which  they  could  neither  act  nor  subsist.  The 
governments  which  are  founded  upon  a  single  principle  or  a 
single  feeling  which  is  easily  defined  are  perhaps  not  the  best, 
but  they  are  unquestionably  the  strongest  and  the  most  durable 
in  the  world. 

In  examining  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  which 
is  the  most  perfect  federal  constitution  that  ever  existed,  one  is 
startled,  on  the  other  hand,  at  the  variety  of  information  and 
the  excellence  of  discretion  which  it  presupposes  in  the  people 
whom  it  is  meant  to  govern.  The  government  of  the  Union 
depends  entirely  upon  legal  fictions;  the  Union  is  an  ideal 
nation  which  only  exists  in  the  mind,  and  whose  limits  and  ex- 
tent can  only  be  discerned  by  the  understanding. 

When  once  the  general  theory  is  comprehended,  numberless 


I 


MMM 


1 66 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


difficulties  remain  to  be  solved  in  its  application ;  for  the  sov- 
ereignty of  the  Union  is  so  involved  in  that  of  the  States  that  it 
is  impossible  to  distinguish  its  boundaries  at  the  first  glance. 
The  whole  structure  of  the  Government  is  artificial  and  con- 
ventional ;  and  it  would  be  ill  adapted  to  a  people  which  has 
not  been  long  accustomed  to  conduct  its  own  affairs,  or  to  one 
in  which  the  scl'»nce  of  politics  has  not  descended  to  the  hum- 
blest classes  of  iociety.  I  have  never  been  more  struck  by  the 
good  sense  and  the  practical  judgment  of  the  Americans  than 
in  the  ingenious  devices  by  which  they  elude  the  numberless 
difficulties  resulting  from  their  Federal  Constitution.  I  scarcely 
ever  met  with  a  plain  American  citizen  who  could  not  dis- 
tinguish, with  surprising  facility,  the  obligations  created  by  the 
laws  of  Congress  from  those  created  by  the  laws  of  his  own 
State ;  and  who,  after  having  discriminated  between  the  mat- 
ters which  come  under  the  cognizance  of  the  Union  and  those 
which  the  local  legislature  is  competent  to  regulate,  could  not 
point  out  the  exact  limit  of  the  several  jurisdictions  of  the 
Federal  courts  and  the  tribunals  of  the  State. 

The  Constitution  of  the  United  States  is  like  those  exquisite 
productions  of  human  industry  which  ensure  wealth  and 
renown  to  their  inventors,  but  which  are  profitless  in  any  other 
hands.  This  truth  is  exemplified  by  the  condition  of  Mexico 
at  the  present  time.  The  Mexicans  were  desirous  of  establish- 
ing a  federal  system,  and  they  took  the  Federal  Constitution  of 
their  neighbors,  the  Anglo-Americans,  as  their  model,  and 
copied  it  with  considerable  accuracy ..s  But  although  they  had 
borrowed  the  letter  of  the  law,  they  were  unable  to  create  or 
to  introduce  the  spirit  and  the  sense  which  give  it  life.  They 
were  involved  in  ceaseless  embarrassments  between  the  me- 
chanism of  their  double  government;  the  sovereignty  of  the 
States  and  that  of  the  Union  perpetually  exceeded  their  respec- 
tive privileges,  and  entered  into  collision ;  and  to  the  present 
day  Mexico  is  alternately  the  victim  of  anarchy  and  the  slave  of 
military  despotism. 

The  second  and  the  most  fatal  of  all  the  defects  I  have  alluded 
to,  and  that  which  I  believe  to  be  inherent  in  the  federal  sys- 
tem, is  the  relative  weakness  of  the  government  of  the  Union. 
The  principle  upon  which  all  confederations  rest  is  that  of  a 
divided  sovereignty.    The  legislator  may  render  this  partition 

<See  the  Mexican  Constitution  of  1824. 


^  if. 


! 


I 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


167 


less  perceptible,  he  may  even  conceal  it  for  a  time  from  the 
public  eye,  but  he  cannot  prevent  it  from  existing,  and  a  divided 
sovereignty  must  always  be  less  powerful  than  an  entire  su- 
premacy. The  reader  has  seen  in  the  remarks  I  have  made  on 
the  Constitution  of  the  United  States  that  the  Americans  have 
displayed  singular  ingenuity  in  combining  the  restriction  of 
the  power  of  the  Union  within  the  narrow  limits  of  a  federal 
government  with  the  semblance  and,  to  a  certain  extent,  with 
the  force  of  a  national  government.  By  this  means  the  legis- 
lators of  the  Union  have  succeeded  in  diminishing,  though  not 
in  counteracting  the  natural  danger  of  confederations. 

It  has  been  remarked  that  the  American  Government  does 
not  apply  itself  to  the  States,  but  that  it  immediately  transmits 
its  injunctions  to  the  citizens,  and  compels  them  as  isolated 
individuals  to  comply  with  its  demands.  But  if  the  Federal  law 
were  to  clash  with  the  interests  and  the  prejudices  of  a  State, 
it  might  be  feared  that  all  the  citizens  of  that  State  would  con- 
ceive themselves  to  be  interested  in  the  cause  of  a  single  in- 
dividual who  should  refuse  to  obey.  If  all  the  citizens  of  the 
State  were  aggrieved  at  the  same  time  and  in  the  same  manner 
by  the  authority  of  the  Union,  the  Federal  Government  would 
vainly  attempt  to  subdue  them  individually;  they  would  in- 
stinctively unite  in  a  common  defence,  and  they  would  derive  a 
ready-prepared  organization  from  the  share  of  sovereignty 
which  the  institution  of  their  State  allows  them  to  enjoy.  Fic- 
tion would  give  way  to  reality,  and  an  organized  portion  of  the 
territory  might  then  contest  the  central  authority.*  The  same 
observation  holds  good  with  regard  to  the  Federal  jurisdiction. 
If  the  courts  of  the  Union  violated  an  important  law  of  a  State 
in  a  private  case,  the  real,  if  not  the  apparent,  contest  would 
arise  between  the  aggrieved  State  represented  by  a  citizen  and 
the  Union  represented  by  its  courts  of  justice." 

He  would  have  but  a  partial  knowledge  of  the  world  who 


t  [This  is  precisely  what  occurred  in 
1862,  and  the  following  paragraph  de- 
scribes correctly  the  feelings  ar>d  no- 
tions of  the  South.  General  Lee  i.Md 
tnat  his  primary  allegiance  was  due, 
not  to  the  Union,  but  to  Virginia.] 

u  For  instance,  the  Union  possesses 
by  the  Contstitution  the  right  of  selling 
unoccupied  lands  for  its  own  profit. 
Supposing  that  the  State  of  Ohio 
should  claim  the  same  right  in  behalf  of 
certain  territories  lying  within  its  boun- 
daries, upon  the  plea  that  the  Constitu- 
tion refers  to  those  lands  alone  which 


do  not  belong  to  the  jurisdiction  of  any 
particular  State,  and  consequently 
should  choose  to  dispose  of  them  itself, 
the  litigation  would  be  carried  on  in 
the  names  of  the  purchasers  from  the 
."tate  of  Ohio  and  the  purchasers  from 
tht  Union,  and  not  in  the  names  of 
Oh'o  ind  the  Union.  But  what  would 
become  of  this  legal  fiction  if  the  Fed- 
eral purchaser  was  confirmed  in  his 
right  by  the  courts  of  the  Union,  whilst 
the  other  competitor  was  ordered  to  re- 
tain possession  by  the  tribunals  of  the 
State  of  Ohio? 


m 


w 


I' 

1 1 


i  Ut: 


i68 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


m 


I  \l 


\  \ 


Itv.l  ' 


should  imagine  that  it  is  possible,  by  the  aid  of  legal  fictions, 
to  prevent  men  from  finding  out  and  employing  those  means  of 
gratifying  their  passions  which  have  been  left  open  to  them; 
and  it  may  be  doubted  whether  the  American  legislators,  when 
they  rendered  a  collision  between  the  two  sovereigns  less  prob- 
able, destroyed  the  cause  of  such  a  misfortune.  But  it  may  even 
be  affirmed  that  they  were  unable  to  ensure  the  preponderance 
of  the  Federal  element  in  a  case  of  this  kind.  The  Union  is 
possessed  of  money  and  of  troops,  but  the  affections  and  the 
prejudices  of  the  people  are  in  the  bosom  of  the  States.  The 
sovereignty  of  the  Union  is  an  abstract  being,  which  is  con- 
nected with  but  few  external  objects;  the  sovereignty  of  the 
States  is  hourly  perceptible,  easily  understood,  constantly 
active ;  and  if  the  former  is  of  recent  creation,  the  latter  is  coeval 
with  the  people  itself.  The  sovereignty  of  the  Union  is  facti- 
tious, that  of  the  States  is  natui  al,  and  derives  its  existence  from 
its  own  simple  influence,  like  the  authority  of  a  parent.  The 
supreme  power  of  the  nation  only  affects  a  few  of  the  chief 
interests  of  society;  it  represents  an  immense  but  remote 
country,  and  claims  a  feeling  of  patriotism  which  is  vague  and 
ill  defined ;  but  the  authority  of  the  States  controls  every  in- 
dividual citizen  at  every  hour  and  in  all  circumstances ;  it  pro- 
tects his  property,  his  freedom,  and  his  life;  and  when  we 
recollect  the  traditions,  the  customs,  the  prejudices  of  local  and 
familiar  attachment  with  which  it  is  connected,  we  cannot  doubt 
of  the  superiority  of  a  power  which  is  interwoven  with  every 
circumstance  that  renders  the  love  of  one's  native  country  in- 
stinctive in  the  human  heart. 

Since  legislators  are  unable  to  obviate  such  dangerous  col- 
lisions as  occur  between  the  two  sovereignties  which  coexist 
in  the  federal  system,  their  first  object  must  be,  not  only 
to  dissuade  the  confederate  States  from  warfare,  but  to  en- 
courage such  institutions  as  may  promote  the  maintenance  of 
peace.  Hence  it  results  that  the  Federal  compact  cannot  be 
lasting  unless  there  exists  in  the  communities  which  are  leagued 
together  a  certain  number  of  inducements  to  union  which 
render  their  common  dependence  agreeable,  and  the  task  of 
the  Government  light,  and  that  system  canr  ♦:  succeed  without 
the  presence  of  favorable  circumstances  added  to  the  influence 
of  good  laws.  All  the  peoples  which  have  ever  formed  a  con- 
federation have  been  held  together  by  a  certain  number  of 


\ 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


169 


common  interests,  which  served  as  the  intellectual  ties  of  asso- 
ciation. 

But  the  sentiments  and  the  principles  of  man  must  be  taken 
into  consideration  as  well  as*  his  immediate  interests.  A  cer- 
tain uniformity  of  civilization  is  not  less  necessary  to  the  dura- 
bility of  a  confederation  than  a  uniformity  of  interests  in  the 
States  which  compose  it.  In  Switzerland  the  difference  which 
exists  between  the  Canton  of  Uri  and  the  Canton  of  Vaud  is 
equal  to  that  between  the  fifteenth  and  the  nineteenth  centuries ; 
and,  properly  speaking,  Switzerland  has  never  possessed  a 
federal  government.  The  union  between  these  two  cantons 
only  subsists  upon  the  map,  and  their  discrepancies  would  soon 
be  perceived  if  an  attempt  were  made  by  a  central  authority  to 
prescribe  the  same  laws  to  the  whole  territory. 

One  of  the  circumstances  which  most  powerfully  contribute 
to  support  the  Federal  Government  in  America  is  that  the 
States  have  not  only  similar  interests,  a  common  origin,  and  a 
common  tongue,  but  that  they  are  also  arrived  at  the  same  stage 
of  civilization ;  which  almost  always  renders  a  union  feasible. 
I  do  not  know  of  any  European  nation,  how  small  soever  it 
may  be,  which  does  not  present  less  uniformity  in  its  different 
provinces  than  the  American  people,  which  occupies  a  territory 
as  extensive  as  one-half  of  Europe.  The  distance  from  the 
State  of  Maine  to  that  of  Georgia  is  reckoned  at  about  one 
thousand  miles ;  but  the  difiference  between  the  civilization  of 
Maine  and  that  of  Georgia  is  slighter  than  the  difference  be- 
tween the  habits  of  Normandy  and  those  of  Brittany.  Maine 
and  Georgia,  which  are  placed  at  the  opposite  extremities  of  a 
great  empire,  are  consequently  in  the  natural  possession  of 
more  real  inducements  to  form  a  confederation  than  Normandy 
and  Brittany,  which  are  only  separated  by  a  bridge. 

The  geographical  position  of  the  country  contributed  to 
increase  the  facilities  which  the  American  legislators  derived 
from  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  inhabitants ;  and  it  is  to 
this  circumstance  that  the  adoption  and  the  maintenance  of  the 
Federal  system  are  mainly  attributable. 

The  most  important  occurrence  which  can  mark  the  annals 
of  a  people  is  the  breaking  out  of  a  war.  In  war  a  people 
struggles  with  the  energy  of  a  single  man  against  foreign  na- 
tions in  the  defence  of  its  very  existence.  The  skill  of  a  gov- 
ernment, the  good  sense  of  the  community,  and  the  natural 


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fondness  which  men  entertain  for  their  country,  may  suffice 
to  maintatin  peace  in  the  interior  of  a  district,  and  to  favor  its 
internal  prosperity ;  but  a  nation  can  only  carry  on  a  great  war 
at  the  cost  of  more  numerous  and  more  painful  sacrifices ;  and 
to  suppose  that  a  great  number  of  men  will  of  their  own  accord 
comply  with  these  exigencies  of  the  State  is  to  betray  an  igno- 
rance of  mankind.  All  the  peoples  which  have  been  obliged  to 
sustain  a  long  and  serious  warfare  have  consequently  been  led 
to  augment  the  power  of  their  government.  Those  which  have 
not  succeeded  in  this  attempt  have  been  subjugated.  A  long 
war  almost  always  places  nations  in  the  wretched  alternative 
of  being  abandoned  to  ruin  by  defeat  or  to  despotism  by  success. 
War  therefore  renders  the  symptoms  of  the  weakness  of  a 
government  most  palpable  and  most  alarming;  and  I  have 
shown  that  the  inherent  defeat  of  federal  governments  is  that 
of  being  weak. 

The  Federal  system  is  not  only  deficient  in  every  kind  of 
centralized  administration,  but  the  central  government  itself  is 
imperfectly  organized,  which  is  invariably  an  influential  cause 
of  inferiority  when  the  nation  is  opposed  to  other  countries 
which  are  themselves  governed  by  a  single  authority.  In  the 
Federal  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  by  which  the  central 
government  possesses  more  real  force,  this  evil  is  still  extremely 
sensible.    An  example  will  illustrate  the  case  to  the  reader. 

The  Constitution  confers  upon  Congress  the  right  of  calling 
forth  militia  to  execute  the  laws  of  the  Union,  suppress  insur- 
rections, and  repel  invasions ;  and  another  article  declares  that 
the  President  of  the  United  States  is  the  commander-in-chief 
of  the  militia.  In  the  war  of  1812  the  President  ordered  the 
militia  of  the  Northern  States  to  march  to  the  frontiers ;  but 
Connecticut  and  Massachusetts,  whose  interests  were  impaired 
by  the  war,  refused  to  obey  the  command.  They  argued  that 
the  Constitution  authorizes  the  Federal  Government  to  call 
forth  the  militia  in  case  of  insurrection  or  invasion,  but  that  in 
the  present  instance  there  was  neither  invasion  nor  insurrec- 
tion. They  added,  that  the  same  Constitution  which  conferred 
upon  the  Union  the  right  of  calling  forth  the  militia  reserved 
to  the  States  that  of  naming  the  officers ;  and  that  consequently 
(as  they  understood  the  clause)  no  officer  of  the  Union  had 
any  right  to  command  the  militia,  even  during  war,  except  the 
President  in  person;   and  in  this  case  they  were  ordered  to 


li- 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


«7« 


join  an  army  commanded  by  another  individual.  These  absurd 
and  pernicious  doctrines  received  the  sanction  not  only  of  the 
governors  and  the  legislative  bodies,  but  also  of  the  courts  of 
justice  in  both  States;  and  the  Federal  Government  was  con- 
strained to  raise  elsewhere  the  troops  which  it  required.^' 

The  only  safeguard  which  the  American  Union,  with  all  the 
relative  perfection  of  its  laws,  possesses  against  the  dissolution 
which  would  be  produced  by  a  great  war,  lies  in  its  probable 
exemption  from  that  calamity.  Placed  in  the  centre  of  an  im- 
mense continent,  which  offers  a  boundless  field  for  human  in- 
dustry, the  Union  is  almost  as  much  insulated  from  the  world 
as  if  its  frontiers  were  girt  by  the  ocean.  Canada  contains  only 
a  million  of  inhabitants,  and  its  population  is  divided  into  two 
inimical  nations.  The  rigor  of  the  climate  limits  the  extension 
of  its  territory,  and  shuts  up  its  ports  during  the  six  months  of 
winter.  From  Canada  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  a  few  savage  tribes 
are  to  be  met  with,  which  retire,  perishing  in  their  retreat,  before 
six  thousand  soldiers.  To  the  South,  the  Union  has  a  point  of 
contact  with  the  empire  of  Mexico ;  and  it  is  thence  that  serious 
hostilities  may  one  day  be  expected  to  arise.  But  for  a  long 
while  to  come  the  uncivilized  state  of  the  Mexican  community, 
the  depravity  of  its  morals,  and  its  extreme  poverty,  will  prevent 
that  country  from  ranking  high  amongst  nations.^  As  for 
the  Powers  of  Europe,  they  are  too  distant  to  be  formidable. 

The  great  advantage  of  the  United  States  does  not,  then, 
consist  in  a  Federal  Constitution  which  allows  them  to  carry 
on  great  wars,  but  in  a  geographical  position  which  renders 
such  enterprises  extremely  improbable. 

No  one  can  be  more  inclined  than  I  am  myself  to  appreciate 
the  advantages  of  the  federal  system,  which  I  hold  to  be  one 
of  the  combinations  most  favorable  to  the  prosperity  and  free- 
dom of  man.  I  envy  the  lot  of  those  nations  which  have  been 
enabled  to  adopt  it ;  but  I  cannot  believe  that  any  confederate 


V  Kent's  "  Commentaries,"  vol.  i.  p. 
244.  I  have  selected  an  example  which 
relates  to  a  time  posterior  to  the  prom- 
ulgation of  the  present  Constitution. 
If  I  had  gone  back  to  the  dajrs  of  the 
Confederation,  I  might  have  given  still 
more  striking  instances.  The  whole  na- 
tion was  at  that  time  in  a  state  of  en- 
thusiastic excitement;  the  Revolution 
was  represented  by  a  man  who  was  the 
idol  of  the  people;  but  at  that  very  per- 
iod Congress  had,  to  say  the  truth,  no 
resources  at  all  at  its  disposal.  Troops 
and  supplies  were  perpetually  wanting. 


The  best-devised  projects  failed  in  the 
execution,  and  the  Union,  which  was 
constantly  on  the  verge  of  destruction, 
was  saved  by  the  weakness  of  its  ene- 
mies far  more  than  by  its  own  strength. 
[All  doubt  as  to  the  powers  of  the  Fed- 
eral Executive  was,  however,  removed 
by  its  efforts  in  the  Civil  War,  and  those 
powers  were  largely   extended.] 

w  [War  broke  out  between  the  United 
States  and  Mexico  in  1846,  and  ended  in 
the  conquest  of  an  immense  territory, 
including  California.] 


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peoples  could  maintain  a  long  or  an  equal  contest  with  a  nation 
of  similar  strength  in  which  the  government  should  be  cen- 
tralized. A  people  which  should  divide  its  sovereignty  into 
fractional  powers,  in  the  presence  of  the  great  military  mon- 
archies of  Europe,  would,  in  my  opinion,  by  that  very  act, 
abdicate  its  power,  and  perhaps  its  existence  and  its  name. 
But  such  is  the  admirable  position  of  the  New  World  that  man 
has  no  other  enemy  than  himself;  and  that,  in  order  to  be 
happy  and  to  be  free,  it  suffices  to  seek  the  gifts  of  prosperity 
and  the  knowledge  of  freedom. 


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CHAPTER  IX 

I  HAVE  hitherto  examined  the  institutions  of  the  United 
States;  I  have  passed  their  legislation  in  review,  and  I 
have  depicted  the  present  characteristics  of  political  so- 
ciety in  that  country.  But  a  sovereign  power  exists  above  these 
institutions  and  beyond  these  characteristic  features  which  may 
destroy  or  modify  them  at  its  pleasure — I  mean  that  of  the 
people.  It  remains  to  be  shown  in  what  manner  this  power, 
which  regulates  the  laws,  acts :  its  propensities  and  its  passions 
remain  to  be  pointed  out,  as  well  as  the  secret  springs  which 
retard,  accelerate,  or  direct  its  irresistible  course;  and  the 
effects  of  its  unbounded  authority,  with  the  destiny  which  is 
probably  reserved  for  it. 


WHY  THE  PEOPLE  MAY  STRICTLY  BE  SAID  TO  GOVERN 
IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

In  America  the  people  appoints  the  legislative  and  the  exec- 
utive power,  and  furnishes  the  jurors  who  punish  all  offences 
against  the  laws.  The  American  institutions  are  democratic, 
not  only  in  their  principle  but  in  all  their  consequences ;  and 
the  people  elects  its  representatives  directly,  and  for  the  most 
part  annually,  in  order  to  ensure  their  dependence.  The  people 
is  therefore  the  real  directing  power ;  and  although  the  form 
of  government  is  representative,  it  is  evident  that  the  opinions, 
the  prejudices,  the  interests,  and  even  the  passions  of  the  com- 
munity are  hindered  by  no  durable  obstacles  from  exercising 
a  perpetual  influence  on  society.  In  the  United  States  the 
majority  governs  in  the  name  of  the  people,  as  is  the  case  in 
all  the  countries  in  which  the  people  is  supreme.  The  majority 
is  principally  composed  of  peaceful  citizens  who,  either  by  in- 
clination or  by  interest,  are  sincerely  desirous  of  the  welfare  of 
their  country.  But  they  are  surrounded  by  the  incessant  agita- 
tion of  parties,  which  attempt  to  gain  their  co-operation  and  to 
avail  themselves  of  their  support. 

173 


•  W 


!i 


CHAPTER  X 


I  t 


PARTIES  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Great  distinction  to  be  made  between  parties — Parties  which  are  to  each 
other  as  rival  nations — Parties  properly  so  called — Diflference  be- 
tween great  and  small  parties — Epochs  which  produce  them — Their 
characteristics — America  has  had  great  parties — They  are  extinct — 
Federalists — Republicans — Defeat  of  the  Federalists — Difficulty  of 
creating  parties  in  the  United  States — What  is  done  with  this  in- 
tention— Aristocratic  or  democratic  character  to  be  met  with  in  all 
parties — Struggle  of  General  Jackson  against  the  Bank. 

A  GREAT  distinction  must  be  made  between  parties. 
Some  countries  are  so  large  that  the  different  popula- 
tions which  inhabit  them  have  contradictory  interests, 
although  they  are  the  subjects  of  the  same  Government,  and 
they  may  thence  be  in  a  perpetual  state  of  opposition.  In  this 
case  the  different  fractions  of  the  people  may  more  properly  be 
considered  as  distinct  nations  than  as  mere  parties;  and  if  a 
civil  war  breaks  out,  the  struggle  is  carried  on  by  rival  peo- 
ples rather  than  by  factions  in  the  State. 

But  when  the  citizens  entertain  different  opinions  upon  sub- 
jects which  aflfect  the  whole  country  alike,  such,  for  instance, 
as  the  principles  upon  which  the  government  is  to  be  conducted, 
then  distinctions  arise  which  may  correctly  be  styled  parties. 
Parties  are  a  necessary  evil  in  free  governments ;  but  they  have 
not  at  all  times  the  same  character  and  the  same  propensities. 

At  certain  periods  a  nation  may  be  oppressed  by  such  in- 
supportable evils  as  to  conceive  the  design  of  eflfecting  a  total 
change  in  its  political  constitution;  at  other  times  the  mis- 
chief lies  still  deeper,  and  the  existence  of  society  itself  is  en- 
dangered. Such  are  the  times  of  great  revolutions  and  of 
great  parties.  But  between  these  epochs  of  misery  and  of  con- 
fusion there  are  periods  during  which  human  society  seems  to 
rest,  and  mankind  to  make  a  pause.  This  pause  is,  indeed, 
only  apparent,  for  time  does  not  stop  its  course  for  nations  any 

174 


■I  ! 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


«7S 


more  Mian  for  men ;  they  arc  all  advancing  towards  a  goal  with 
which  till.  V  ure  unacquainted ;  and  wc  only  imagine  them  to  be 
Stationary  when  their  progress  escapes  our  observation,  as  men 
who  are  going  at  a  foot-pace  seem  to  be  standing  still  to  those 
who  run. 

But  however  thi  may  be,  there  are  certain  epochs  at  which 
the  changes  that  take  place  in  the  social  and  political  constitu- 
tion of  nations  are  so  slow  and  so  insensible  that  men  imagine 
their  present  condition  to  be  a  final  state ;  and  the  human  mind, 
believing  itself  to  be  firmly  based  upon  certain  foundations, 
does  not'  extend  its  researches  beyond  the  horizon  which  it 
descries.    These  are  the  times  of  small  parties  and  of  intrigue. 

The  political  parties  which  I  style  great  are  those  which 
cling  to  principles  more  than  to  their  consequences ;  to  gen- 
eral, and  not  to  especial  cases ;  to  ideas,  and  not  to  men.  These 
parties  are  usually  distinguished  by  a  nobler  character,  by  more 
generous  passions,  more  genuine  convictions,  and  a  more  bold 
and  open  conduct  than  the  others.  In  them  private  interest, 
which  always  plays  the  chief  part  in  political  passions,  is  more 
studiously  veiled  under  the  pretext  of  the  public  good ;  and  it 
may  even  be  sometimes  concealed  from  the  eyes  of  the  very 
persons  whom  it  excites  and  impels. 

Minor  parties  are,  on  the  other  hand,  generally  deficient  in 
political  faith.  As  they  are  not  sustained  or  dignified  by  a 
lofty  purpose,  they  ostensibly  display  the  egotism  of  their  char- 
acter in  their  actions.  They  glow  with  a  factitious  zeal ;  their 
language  is  vehement,  but  their  conduct  is  timid  and  irresolute. 
The  means  they  employ  are  as  wretched  as  the  end  at  which 
they  aim.  Hence  it  arises  that  when  a  calm  state  of  things  suc- 
ceeds a  violent  revolution,  the  leaders  of  society  seem  sud- 
denly to  disappear,  and  the  powers  of  the  human  mind  to  He 
concealed.  Society  is  convulsed  by  great  parties,  by  minor 
ones  it  is  agitated ;  it  is  torn  by  the  former,  by  the  latter  it  is 
degraded ;  and  if  these  sometimes  save  it  by  a  salutary  pertur- 
bation, those  invariably  disturb  it  to  no  good  end. 

America  has  already  lost  the  great  parties  which  once  di- 
vided the  nation ;  and  if  her  happiness  is  considerably  increased, 
her  morality  has  suffered  by  their  extinction.  When  the  War 
of  Independence  was  terminated,  and  the  foundations  of  the 
new  Government  were  to  be  laid  down,  the  nation  was  divided 
between  two  opinions — two  opinions  which  are  as  old  as  the 


';;. 


I'll  'J 


'♦•i 


t  .• 


176 


DE  TOCgUEVILLE 


\/n  .* 


I    V 


world,  and  which  are  perpetually  to  be  met  with  under  all  the 
forms  and  all  the  names  which  have  ever  obtained  in  free  com- 
munities— the  one  tending  to  limit,  the  other  to  extend  indefi- 
nitely, the  power  of  the  people.  The  conflict  of  these  two  opin- 
ions never  assumed  that  degree  of  violence  in  America  which  it 
has  frequently  displayed  elsewhere.  Both  parties  of  the  Amer- 
icans were,  in  fact,  agreed  upon  the  most  essential  points ;  and 
neither  of  them  had  to  destroy  a  traditionary  constitution,  or 
to  overthrow  the  structure  of  society,  in  order  to  ensure  its  own 
triumph.  In  neither  of  them,  consequently,  were  a  great  num- 
ber of  private  interests  affected  by  success  or  by  defeat ;  but 
moral  principles  of  a  high  order,  such  as  the  love  of  equality 
and  of  independence,  were  concerned  in  the  struggle,  and  they 
sufficed  to  kindle  violent  passions. 

The  party  which  desired  to  limit  the  power  of  the  people  en- 
deavored to  apply  its  doctrines  more  especially  to  the  Consti- 
tution of  the  Union,  whence  it  derived  its  name  of  Federal.  The 
other  party,  which  affected  to  be  more  exclusively  attached  to 
the  cause  of  liberty,  took  that  of  Republican.  America  is  a  land 
of  democracy,  and  the  Federalists  were  always  in  a  minority ; 
but  they  reckoned  on  their  side  almost  all  the  great  men  who 
had  been  called  forth  by  the  War  of  Independence,  and  their 
moral  influence  was  very  considerable.  Their  cause  was,  more- 
over, favored  by  circumstances.  The  ruin  of  the  Confedera- 
tion had  impressed  the  people  with  a  dread  of  anarchy,  and 
the  Federalists  did  not  fail  to  profit  by  this  transient  disposition 
of  the  multitude.  For  ten  or  twelve  years  they  were  at  the 
head  of  affairs,  and  they  were  able  to  apply  some,  though  not 
all,  of  their  principles ;  for  the  hostile  current  was  becoming 
from  day  to  day  too  violent  to  be  checked  or  stemmed.  In  1801 
the  Republicans  got  possession  of  the  Government;  Thomas 
Jefferson  was  named  President ;  and  he  increased  the  influence 
of  their  party  by  the  weight  of  his  celebrity,  the  greatness  of  his 
talents,  and  the  immense  extent  of  his  popularity. 

The  means  by  which  the  Federalists  had  maintained  their 
position  were  artificial,  and  their  resources  were  temporary; 
it  was  by  the  virtues  or  the  talents  of  their  leaders  that  they  had 
risen  to  power.  When  the  Republicans  attained  to  that  lofty 
station,  their  opponents  were  overwhelmed  by  utter  defeat. 
An  immense  majority  declared  itself  against  the  retiring  party, 
and  the  Federalists  found  themselves  in  so  small  a  minority 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


177 


that  they  at  once  despaired  of  their  future  success.  From  that 
moment  the  RepubHcan  or  Democratic  party  a  has  proceeded 
from  conquest  to  conquest,  until  it  has  acquired  absolute  su- 
premacy in  the  country.  The  Federalists,  perceiving  that  they 
were  vanquished  without  resource,  and  isolated  in  the  midst  of 
the  nation,  fell  into  two  divisions,  of  which  one  joined  the  vic- 
torious Republicans,  and  the  other  abandoned  its  rallying-point 
and  its  name.  Many  years  have  already  elapsed  since  they 
ceased  to  exist  as  a  party. 

The  accession  of  the  Federalists  to  power  was,  in  my  opinion, 
one  of  the  most  fortunate  incidents  which  accompanied  the 
formation  of  the  great  American  Union ;  they  resisted  the  in- 
evitable propensities  of  their  age  and  of  the  country.  But 
whether  their  theories  were  good  or  bad,  they  had  the  effect 
of  being  inapplicable,  as  a  system,  to  the  society  which  they 
professed  to  govern,  and  that  which  occurred  under  the  auspices 
of  Jefferson  must  therefore  have  taken  place  sooner  or  later. 
But  their  Government  gave  the  new  republic  time  to  acquire 
a  certain  stability,  and  afterwards  to  support  the  rapid  growth 
of  the  very  doctrines  which  they  had  combated.  A  consider- 
able number  of  their  principles  were  in  point  of  fact  embodied  in 
the  political  creed  of  their  opponents ;  and  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution which  subsists  at  the  present  day  is  a  lasting  monu- 
ment of  their  patriotism  and  their  wisdom. 

Great  political  parties  are  not,  then,  to  be  met  with  in  the 
United  States  at  the  present  time.  Parties,  indeed,  may  be 
found  which  threaten  the  future  tranquillity  of  the  Union ;  but 
there  are  none  which  seem  to  contest  the  present  form  of  Gov- 
ernment or  the  present  course  of  society.  The  parties  by  which 
the  Union  is  menaced  do  not  rest  upon  abstract  principles,  but 
upon  temporal  interests.  These  interests,  disseminated  in  the 
provinces  of  so  vast  an  empire,  may  be  said  to  constitute  rival 
nations  rather  than  parties.  Thus,  upon  a  recent  occasion,  the 
North  contended  for  the  system  of  commercial  prohibition,  and 
the  South  took  up  arms  in  favor  of  free  trade,  simply  because 
the  North  is  a  manufacturing  and  the  South  an  agricultural  dis- 
trict ;  and  that  the  restrictive  system  which  was  profitable  to  the 
one  was  prejudicial  to  the  other.& 


|! 


'm 


\vn 


U 


a  [It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  remark 
that  in  more  recent  times  the  significa- 
tion of  these  terms  has  changed.  The 
Republicans  are  the  representatives  of 

Vol.  I. — 12 


the  old  Federalists,  and  the  Democrats 
of   the    old    Republicans.— Troni.    Note 
(1861).] 
b  [The  divisions  of  North  and  South 


lyS 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


In  the  absence  of  great  parties,  the  United  States  abound  with 
lesser  controversies ;  and  public  opinion  is  divided  into  a  thou- 
sand minute  shades  of  difference  upon  questions  of  very  little 
moment.  The  pains  which  are  taken  to  create  parties  are  in- 
conceivable, and  at  the  present  day  it  is  no  easy  task.  In  the 
United  States  there  is  no  religious  animosity,  because  all  re- 
ligion is  respected,  and  no  sect  is  predominant;  there  is  no 
jealousy  of  rank,  because  the  people  is  everything,  and  none  can 
contest  its  authority ;  lastly,  there  is  no  public  indigence  to  sup- 
ply the  means  of  agitation,  because  the  physical  position  of  the 
country  opens  so  wide  a  field  to  industry  that  man  is  able  to  ac- 
complish the  most  surprising  undertakings  with  his  own  native 
resources.  Nevertheless,  ambitious  men  are  interested  in  the 
creation  of  parties,  since  it  is  difficult  to  eject  a  person  from 
authority  upon  the  mere  ground  that  his  place  is  coveted  by 
others.  The  skill  of  the  actors  in  the  political  world  lies  there- 
fore in  the  art  of  creating  parties.  A  political  aspirant  in  the 
United  States  begins  by  discriminating  his  own  interest,  and  by 
calculating  upon  those  interests  which  may  be  collected  around 
and  amalgamated  with  it ;  he  then  contrives  to  discover  some 
doctrine  or  some  principle  which  may  suit  the  purposes  of  this 
new  association,  and  which  he  adopts  in  order  to  bring  forward 
his  party  and  to  secure  his  popularity ;  just  as  the  imprimatur 
of  a  King  was  in  former  days  incorporated  with  the  volume 
which  it  authorized,  but  to  which  it  nowise  belonged.  When 
these  preliminaries  are  terminated,  the  new  party  is  ushered 
into  the  political  world. 

All  the  domestic  controversies  of  the  Americans  at  first  ap- 
pear to  a  stranger  to  be  so  incomprehensible  and  so  puerile 
that  he  is  at  a  loss  whether  to  pity  a  people  which  takes  such 
arrant  trifles  in  good  earnest,  or  to  envy  the  happiness  which 
enables  it  to  discuss  them.  But  when  he  comes  to  study  the 
secret  propensities  which  govern  the  factions  of  America,  he 
easily  perceives  that  the  greater  part  of  them  are  more  or  less 
connetced  with  one  or  the  other  of  those  two  divisions  which 
have  always  existed  in  free  communities.  The  deeper  we  pene- 
trate into  the  working  of  these  parties,  the  more  do  we  perceive 
that  the  object  of  the  one  is  to  limit,  and  that  of  the  other  to  ex- 
tend, the  popular  authority.     I  do  not  assert  that  the  ostensible 

have  since  acquired  a  far  greater  degree        spirit   of  opposition   to   Northern   gov- 
of    intensity,   and    the    South,   though        ernment.— Translator's  Noit,  1875.] 
conquered,   still   presents  a  formidable 


\i    \ 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


179 


fend,  or  even  that  the  secret  aim,  of  American  parties  is  to  pro- 
mote the  rule  of  aristocracy  or  democracy  in  the  country ;  but 
I  affirm  that  aristocratic  or  democratic  passions  may  easily  be 
detected  at  the  bottom  of  all  parties,  and  that,  although  they 
escape  a  superficial  observation,  they  are  the  main  point  and 
the  very  soul  of  every  faction  in  the  United  States. 

To  quote  a  recent  example.  When  the  President  attacked 
the  Bank,  the  country  was  excited  and  parties  were  formed ; 
the  well-informed  classes  rallied  round  the  Bank,  the  common 
people  round  the  President.  But  it  must  not  be  imagined  that 
the  people  had  formed  a  rational  opinion  upon  a  question  which 
offers  so  many  difficulties  to  the  most  experienced  statesmen. 
The  Bank  is  a  great  establishment  which  enjoys  an  independent 
existence,  and  the  people,  accustomed  to  make  and  unmake 
whatsoever  it  pleases,  is  startled  to  meet  with  this  obstacle  to  its 
authority.  In  the  midst  of  the  perpetual  fluctuation  of  society 
the  community  is  irritated  by  so  permanent  an  institution,  and 
is  led  to  attack  it  in  order  to  see  whether  it  can  be  shaken  and 
controlled,  like  all  the  other  institutions  of  the  country. 


h   i 


Remains  of  the  Aristocratic  Party  in  the  United  States 

Secret  opposition  of  wealthy  individuals  to  democracy — ^Their  retire- 
ment— Their  taste  for  exclusive  pleasures  and  for  luxury  at  home— 
Their  simplicity  abroad — ^Their  affected  condescension  towards  the 
people. 

It  sometimes  happens  in  a  people  amongst  which  various 
opinions  prevail  that  the  balance  of  the  several  parties  is  lost, 
and  one  of  them  obtains  an  irresistible  preponderance,  over- 
powers all  obstacles,  harasses  its  opponents,  and  appropriates 
all  the  resources  of  society  to  its  own  purposes.  The  van- 
quished citizens  despa>  of  success  and  they  conceal  their  dis- 
satisfaction in  silence  and  m  general  apathy.  The  nation  seems 
to  be  governed  by  a  single  principle,  and  the  prevailing  party 
assumes  the  credit  of  having  restored  peace  and  unanimity  to 
the  country.  But  this  apparent  unanimity  is  merely  a  cloak  to 
alarming  dissensions  and  perpetual  opposition. 

This  is  precisely  what  occurred  in  America ;  when  the  demo- 
cratic party  got  the  upper  hand,  it  took  exclusive  possession 
of  the  conduct  of  affairs,  and  from  that  time  the  laws  and  the 
customs  of  society  have  been  adapted  to  its  caprices.    At  the 


ri; 


i8o 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


f ; 


present  day  the  more  affluent  classes  of  society  are  so  entirely 
removed  from  the  direction  of  political  affairs  in  the  United 
States  that  wealth,  far  from  conferring  a  right  to  the  exercise  of 
power,  is  rather  an  obstacle  than  a  means  of  attaining  to  it. 
The  wealthy  members  of  the  community  abandon  the  lists, 
through  unwillingness  to  contend,  and  frequently  to  contend  in 
vain,  against  the  poorest  classes  of  their  fellow  citizens.  They 
concentrate  all  their  enjoyments  in  the  privacy  of  their  homes, 
where  they  occupy  a  rank  which  cannot  be  assumed  in  public ; 
and  they  constitute  a  private  society  in  the  State,  which  has  its 
own  tastes  and  its  own  pleasures.  They  submit  to  this  state  of 
things  as  an  irremediable  evil,  but  they  are  careful  not  to  show 
that  they  are  galled  by  its  continuance ;  it  is  even  not  uncom- 
mon to  hear  them  laud  the  delights  of  a  republican  government, 
and  the  advantages  of  democratic  institutions  when  they  are  in 
public.  Next  to  hatmg  their  enemies,  men  are  most  inclined 
to  flatter  them. 

Mark,  for  instance,  that  opulent  citizen,  who  is  as  anxious  as 
a  Jew  of  the  Middle  Ages  to  conceal  his  wealth.  His  dress  is 
plain,  his  demeanor  unassuming ;  but  the  interior  of  his  dwell- 
ing glitters  with  luxury,  and  none  but  a  few  chosen  guests  whom 
he  haughtily  styles  his  equals  are  allowed  to  penetrate  into  this 
sanctuary.  No  European  noble  is  more  exclusive  in  his  pleas- 
ures, or  more  jealous  of  the  smallest  advantages  which  his  priv- 
ileged station  confers  upon  him.  But  the  very  same  individual 
crosses  the  city  to  reach  a  dark  counting-house  in  the  centre 
of  trafiic,  where  every  one  may  accost  him  who  pleases.  If  he 
meets  his  cobbler  upon  the  way,  they  stop  and  converse ;  the 
two  citizens  discuss  the  affairs  of  the  State  in  which  they  have 
an  equal  interest,  and  they  shake  hands  before  they  part. 

But  beneath  this  artificial  enthusiasm,  and  these  obsequious 
attentions  to  the  preponderating  power,  it  is  easy  to  perceive 
that  the  wealthy  members  of  the  community  entertain  a  hearty 
distaste  to  the  democratic  institutions  of  their  country.  The 
populace  is  at  once  the  object  of  their  scorn  and  of  their  fears. 
If  the  maladministration  of  the  democracy  ever  brings  about  a 
revolutionary  crisis,  and  if  monarchical  institutions  ever  become 
practicable  in  the  United  States,  the  truth  of  what  I  advance 
will  become  obvious. 

The  two  chief  weapons  which  parties  use  in  order  to  ensure 
success  are  the  public  press  and  the  formation  of  associations. 


CHAPTER  XI 


LIBERTY  OF  THE  PRESS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Difficulty  of  restraining  the  liberty  of  the  press — Particular  reasons 
which  some  nations  have  to  cherish  this  liberty — The  liberty  of  the 
press  a  necessary  consequence  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  as  it 
is  understood  in  America — Violent  language  of  the  periodical  press 
in  the  United  States — Propensities  of  the  periodical  press — Il- 
lustrated by  the  United  States — Opinion  of  the  Americans  upon  the 
repression  of  the  abuse  of  the  liberty  of  the  press  by  judicial  prosecu- 
tions— Reasons  for  which  the  press  is  less  powerful  in  America  than 
in  France. 

THE  influence  of  the  liberty  of  the  press  does  not  aflFect 
political  opinions  alone,  but  it  extends  to  all  the  opin- 
ions of  men,  and  it  modifies  customs  as  well  as  laws.  In 
another  part  of  this  work  I  shall  attempt  to  determinate  the  de- 
gree of  influence  which  the  liberty  of  the  press  has  exercised 
upon  civil  society  in  the  United  States,  and  to  point  out  the  di- 
rection which  it  has  given  to  the  ideas,  as  well  as  the  tone  which 
it  has  imparted  to  the  character  and  the  feelings,  of  the  Anglo- 
Americans,  but  at  present  I  purpose  simply  to  examine  the 
effects  produced  by  the  liberty  of  the  press  in  the  political  world. 

I  confess  that  I  do  not  entertain  that  firm  and  complete  at- 
tachment to  the  liberty  of  the  press  which  things  that  are  su- 
premely good  in  their  very  nature  are  wont  to  excite  in  the 
mind ;  and  I  approve  of  it  more  from  a  recollection  of  the  evils 
it  prevents  than  from  a  consideration  of  the  advantages  it  en- 
sures. 

If  any  one  could  point  out  an  intermediate  and  yet  a  tenable 
position  between  the  complete  independence  and  the  entire  sub- 
jection of  the  public  expression  of  opinion,  I  should  perhaps  be 
inclined  to  adopt  it ;  but  the  difficulty  is  to  discover  this  position. 
If  it  is  your  intention  to  correct  the  abuses  of  unlicensed  print- 
ing and  to  restore  the  use  of  orderly  language,  you  may  in  the 
first  instance  try  the  oflFender  by  a  jury ;  but  if  the  jury  acquits 
him,  the  opinion  which  was  that  of  a  single  individual  becomes 

i8i 


ri  ( 


f{( 


•'\ 


l82 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


^i  ■!' 


t! 


the  opinion  of  the  country  at  large.  Too  much  and  too  little 
has  therefore  hitherto  been  done.  If  you  proceed,  you  must 
bring  the  delinquent  before  a  court  of  permanent  judges.  But 
even  here  the  cause  must  be  heard  before  it  can  be  decided; 
and  the  very  principles  which  no  book  would  have  ventured 
to  avow  are  blazoned  forth  in  the  pleadings,  and  what  was  ob- 
scurely hinted  at  in  a  single  composition  is  then  repeated  in  a 
multitude  of  other  publications.  The  language  in  which  a 
thought  is  embodied  is  the  mere  carcass  of  the  thought,  and  not 
the  idea  itself ;  tribunals  may  condemn  the  form,  but  the  sense 
and  spirit  of  the  work  is  too  subtle  for  their  authority.  Too 
much  has  still  been  done  to  recede,  too  little  to  attain  your  end ; 
you  must  therefore  proceed.  If  you  establish  a  censorship  of 
the  press,  the  tongue  of  the  public  speaker  will  still  make  itself 
heard,  amd  you  have  only  increased  the  mischief.  The  powers 
of  thought  do  not  rely,  like  the  powers  of  physical  strength, 
upon  the  number  of  their  mechanical  agents,  nor  can  a  host 
of  authors  be  reckoned  like  the  troops  which  compose  an  army ; 
on  the  contrary,  the  authority  of  a  principle  is  often  increased 
by  the  smallness  of  the  number  of  men  by  whom  it  is  expressed. 
The  words  of  a  strong-minded  man,  which  penetrate  amidst 
the  passions  of  a  listening  assembly,  have  more  power  than  the 
vociferations  of  a  thousand  orators ;  and  if  it  be  allowed  to  speak 
freely  in  any  public  place,  the  consequence  is  the  same  as  if  free 
speaking  was  allowed  in  every  village.  The  liberty  of  discourse 
must  therefore  be  destroyed  as  well  as  the  liberty  of  the  press ; 
this  is  the  necessary  term  of  your  eflforts ;  but  if  your  object 
was  to  repress  the  abuses  of  liberty,  they  have  brought  you  to 
the  feet  of  a  despot.  You  have  been  led  from  the  extreme  of 
independence  to  the  extreme  of  subjection  without  meeting 
with  a  single  tenable  position  for  shelter  or  repose. 

There  are  certain  nations  which  have  peculiar  reasons  for 
cherishing  the  liberty  of  the  press,  independently  of  the  general 
motives  which  I  have  just  pointed  out.  For  in  certain  coun- 
tries which  profess  to  enjoy  the  privileges  of  freedom  every  in- 
dividual agent  of  the  Government  may  violate  the  laws  with  im- 
punity, since  those  whom  he  oppresses  cannot  prosecute  him 
before  the  courts  of  justice.  In  this  case  the  liberty  of  the 
press  is  not  merely  a  guarantee,  but  it  is  the  only  guarantee,  of 
their  liberty  and  their  security  which  the  citizens  possess.  If 
the  rulers  of  these  nations  propose  to  abolish  the  independence 


'  M 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


1S3 


of  the  press,  the  people  would  be  justified  in  saying :  Give  us 
the  right  of  prosecuting  your  ofifences  before  the  ordinary  tri- 
bunals, and  perhaps  we  may  then  waive  our  right  of  appeal 
to  the  tribunal  of  public  opinion. 

But  in  the  countries  in  which  the  doctrine  of  the  sovereignty 
of  the  people  ostensibly  prevails,  the  censorship  of  the  press 
is  not  only  dangerous,  but  it  is  absurd.  When  the  right  of 
every  citizen  to  co-operate  in  the  government  of  society  is  ac- 
knowledged, every  citizen  must  be  presumed  to  possess  the 
power  of  discriminating  between  the  different  opinions  of  his 
contemporaries,  and  of  appreciating  the  different  facts  from 
which  inferences  may  be  drawn.  The  sovereignty  of  the  people 
and  the  liberty  of  the  press  may  therefore  be  looked  upon  as 
correlative  institutions ;  just  as  the  censorship  of  the  press  and 
universal  suffrage  are  two  things  which  are  irreconcilably  op- 
posed, and  which  cannot  long  be  retained  among  the  institu- 
tions of  the  same  people.  Not  a  single  individual  of  the  twelve 
millions  who  inhabit  the  territory  of  the  United  States  has  as 
yet  dared  to  propose  any  restrictions  to  the  liberty  of  the  press. 
The  first  newspaper  over  which  I  cast  my  eyes,  upon  my  arrival 
in  America,  contained  the  following  article : 

In  all  this  affair  the  language  of  Jackson  has  been  that  of  a  heartless 
despot,  solely  occupied  with  the  preservation  of  his  own  authority. 
Ambition  is  his  crime,  and  it  will  be  his  punishment  too:  intrigue  is  his 
native  element,  and  intrigue  will  confound  his  tricks,  and  will  deprive 
him  of  his  power:  he  governs  by  means  of  corruption,  and  his  immoral 
practices  will  redound  to  his  shame  and  confusion.  His  conduct  in  the 
political  arena  has  been  that  of  a  shameless  and  lawless  gamester.  He 
succeeded  at  the  time,  but  the  hour  of  retribution  approaches,  and  he 
will  be  obliged  to  disgorge  his  winnings,  to  throw  aside  his  false  dice, 
and  to  end  his  days  in  some  retirement,  where  he  may  curse  his  mad- 
ness at  his  leisure;  for  repentance  is  a  virtue  with  which  his  heart  is 
likely  to  remain  forever  unacquainted. 

It  is  not  uncommonly  imagined  in  France  that  the  virulence 
of  the  press  originates  in  the  uncertain  social  condition,  in  the 
political  excitement,  and  the  general  sense  of  consequent  evil 
which  prevail  in  that  country ;  and  it  is  therefore  supposed  that 
as  soon  as  society  has  resumed  a  certain  degree  of  composure 
the  press  will  abandon  its  present  vehemence,  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that  the  above  causes  explain  the  reason  of  the  extraor- 
dinary ascendency  it  has  acquired  over  the  nation,  but  that  they 
do  not  exercise  much  influence  upon  the  tone  of  its  language. 


' 


m 


\]i " 


1^4 


DE  TOCQUFVILLE 


J  • 


The  periodical  press  appears  to  me  to  be  actuated  by  passions 
and  propensities  independent  of  the  circumstances  in  which  it 
is  placed,  and  the  present  position  of  America  corroborates 
this  opinion. 

America  is  perhaps,  at  this  moment,  the  country  of  the  whole 
world  which  contains  the  fewest  germs  of  revolution ;  but  the 
press  is  not  less  destructive  in  its  principles  than  in  France,  and 
it  displays  the  same  violence  without  the  same  reasons  for  in- 
dignation. In  America,  as  in  France,  it  constitutes  a  singular 
power,  so  strangely  composed  of  mingled  good  and  evil  that 
it  is  at  the  same  time  indispensable  to  the  existence  of  freedom, 
and  nearly  incompatible  with  the  maintenance  of  public  order. 
Its  power  is  certainly  much  greater  in  France  than  in  the  United 
States ;  though  nothing  is  more  rare  in  the  latter  country  than 
to  hear  of  a  prosecution  having  been  instituted  against  it.  The 
reason  of  this  is  perfectly  simple :  the  Americans,  having  once 
admitted  the  doctrine  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people,  apply  it 
with  perfect  consistency.  It  was  never  their  intention  to  found 
a  permanent  state  of  things  with  elements  which  undergo  daily 
modifications ;  and  there  is  consequently  nothing  criminal  in 
an  attack  upon  the  existing  laws,  provided  it  be  not  attended 
with  a  violent  infraction  of  them.  They  are  moreover  of  opin- 
ion that  courts  of  justice  are  unable  to  check  the  abuses  of  the 
press ;  and  that  as  the  subtilty  of  human  language  perpetually 
eludes  the  severity  of  judicial  analysis,  offences  of  this  nature 
are  apt  to  escape  the  hand  which  attempts  to  apprehend  them. 
They  hold  that  to  act  with  efficacy  upon  the  press  it  would  be 
necessary  to  find  a  tribunal,  not  only  devoted  to  the  existing 
order  of  things,  but  capable  of  surmounting  the  influence  of 
public  opinion ;  a  tribunal  which  should  conduct  its  proceedings 
without  publicity,  which  should  pronounce  its  decrees  without 
assigning  its  motives,  and  punish  the  intentions  even  more  than 
the  language  of  an  author.  Whosoever  should  have  the  power 
of  creating  and  maintaining  a  tribunal  of  this  kind  would  waste 
his  time  in  prosecuting  the  liberty  of  the  press ;  for  he  would 
be  the  supreme  master  of  the  whole  community,  and  he  would 
be  as  free  to  rid  himself  of  the  authors  as  of  their  writings.  In 
this  question,  therefore,  there  is  no  medium  between  servitude 
and  extreme  license;  in  order  to  enjoy  the  inestimable  bene- 
fits which  the  liberty  of  the  press  ensures,  it  is  necessary  to  sub- 
mit to  the  inevitable  evils  which  it  engenders.    To  expect  to 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


185 


acquire  the  former  and  to  escape  the  latter  is  to  cherish  one  of 
those  illusions  which  commonly  mislead  nations  in  their  times 
of  sickness,  when,  tired  with  faction  and  exhausted  by  effort, 
they  attempt  to  combine  hostile  opinions  a  contrary  princi- 
ples upon  the  same  soil. 

The  small  influence  of  the  American  journals  is  attributable 
to  several  reasons,  amongst  which  are  the  following : 

The  liberty  of  writing,  like  all  other  liberty,  is  most  formid- 
able when  it  is  a  novelty ;  for  a  people  which  has  never  been 
accustomed  to  co-operate  in  the  conduct  of  State  affairs  places 
implicit  confidence  in  the  first  tribune  who  arouses  its  atten- 
tion. The  Anglo-Americans  have  enjoyed  this  liberty  ever 
since  the  foundation  of  the  settlements;  moreover,  the  press 
cannot  create  human  passions  by  its  own  power,  however  skil- 
fully it  may  kindle  them  where  they  exist.  In  America  politics 
are  discussed  with  animation  and  a  varied  activity,  but  they 
rarely  touch  those  deep  passions  which  are  excited  whenever 
the  positive  interest  of  a  part  of  the  community  is  impaired :  but 
in  the  United  States  the  interests  of  the  community  are  in  a 
most  prosperous  condition.  A  single  glance  upon  a  French 
and  an  American  newspaper  is  sufficient  to  show  ilic  difference 
which  exists  between  the  two  nations  on  thi«i  head.  In  France 
the  space  allotted  to  commercial  advertisements  is  very  limited, 
and  the  intelligence  is  not  considerable,  but  the  most  essential 
part  of  the  journal  is  that  which  contains  the  discussion  of  the 
politics  of  the  day.  In  America  three-quarters  of  the  enormous 
sheet  which  is  set  before  the  reader  are  filled  with  advertise- 
ments, and  the  remainder  is  frequently  occupied  by  political  in- 
telligence or  trivial  anecdotes:  it  is  only  from  time  to  time 
that  one  finds  a  corner  devoted  to  passionate  discussions  like 
those  with  which  the  journalists  of  France  are  wont  to  indulge 
their  readers. 

It  has  been  demonstrated  by  observation,  and  discovered  by 
the  innate  sagacity  of  the  pettiest  as  well  as  the  greatest  of  des- 
pots, that  the  influence  of  a  power  is  increased  in  proportion  as 
its  direction  is  rendered  more  central.  In  France  the  press 
combines  a  twofold  centralization ;  almost  all  its  power  is  cen- 
tred in  the  same  spot,  and  vested  in  the  same  hands,  for  its 
organs  are  far  from  numerous.  The  influence  of  a  public  press 
thus  constituted,  upon  a  sceptical  nation,  must  be  unbounded. 


(      ii 


V'f    : 


1 86 


DE  TOCQUEVlLLt: 


'' h''  41 


\f> 


It  is  an  enemy  with  which  a  Government  may  sign  an  occasional 
truce,  but  which  it  is  difficult  to  resist  for  any  length  of  time. 

Neither  of  these  kinds  of  centralization  exists  in  America. 
The  United  States  have  no  metropolis ;  the  intelligence  as  well 
as  the  power  of  the  country  are  dispersed  abroad,  and  instead 
of  radiating  from  a  point,  they  cross  each  other  in  every  direc- 
tion ;  the  Americans  have  established  no  central  control  over  the 
expression  of  opinion,  any  more  than  over  the  conduct  of  busi- 
ness. These  are  circumstances  which  do  not  depend  on  human 
foresight;  but  it  is  owing  to  the  laws  of  the  Union  that  there 
are  no  licenses  to  be  granted  to  printers,  no  securities  demanded 
from  editors  as  in  France,  and  no  stamp  duty  as  in  France  and 
formerly  in  England.  T'le  consequence  of  this  is  that  nothing  is 
easier  than  to  set  up  a  newspaper,  and  a  small  number  of  readers 
suffices  to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  editor. 

The  number  of  periodical  and  occasional  publications  which 
appears  in  the  United  States  actually  surpasses  belief.  The 
most  enlightened  Americans  attribute  the  subordinate  influence 
of  the  press  to  this  excessive  disseminalicr'. ;  and  it  is  adopted 
as  an  axiom  of  political  science  in  that  country  that  the  only  way 
to  neutralize  the  effect  of  public  journals  is  to  multiply  them 
indefinitely.  I  cannot  conceive  that  a  truth  which  is  so  self-evi- 
dent should  not  already  have  been  more  generally  admitted  in 
Europe;  it  is  comprehensible  that  the  persons  who  hope  to 
bring  about  revolutions  by  means  of  the  press  should  be  desirous 
of  confining  its  action  to  a  f^-w  powerful  organs,  but  it  is  per- 
fectly incredible  that  the  partisans  of  the  existing  state  of  things, 
and  the  natural  supporters  of  the  law,  should  attempt  to  diminish 
the  influence  of  the  press  by  concentrating  its  authority.  The 
Governments  of  Europe  seem  to  treat  the  press  with  the  courtesy 
of  the  knights  of  old ;  they  are  anxious  to  furnish  it  with  the 
same  central  power  which  they  have  found  to  be  so  trusty  a 
weapon,  in  order  to  enhance  the  glory  of  their  resistance  to  its 
attacks. 

In  America  there  is  scarcely  a  hamlet  which  has  not  its  own 
newspaper.  It  may  readily  be  imagined  that  neither  discipline 
nor  unity  of  design  can  be  communicated  to  so  multifarious  a 
host,  and  each  one  is  consequently  led  to  fight  under  his  own 
standard.  All  the  political  journals  of  the  United  States  are  in- 
deed arrayed  on  the  side  of  the  administration  or  against  it; 
but  they  attack  and  defend  in  a  thousand  different  ways.    They 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


187 


cannot  succeed  in  forming  those  great  currents  of  upiniui-  w  ii 
overwhelm  the  most  solid  obstacles.  This  division  of  t)  m- 
lluence  of  the  press  produces  a  variety  of  other  conscqu..  ces 
which  are  scarcely  less  remarkable.  The  facility  with  v  xh 
journals  can  be  established  induces  a  multitude  of  individuals  ti- 
take  a  part  in  them ;  but  as  the  extent  of  competition  precludes 
the  possibility  of  considerable  profit,  the  most  distinguished 
classes  of  society  are  rarely  led  to  engage  in  these  undertakings. 
But  such  is  the  number  of  the  public  prints  that,  even  if  they 
were  a  source  of  wealth,  writers  of  ability  could  not  be  found 
to  direct  them  all.  The  journalists  of  the  United  States  are  usu- 
ally placed  in  a  very  humble  position,  with  a  scanty  education 
and  a  vulgar  turn  of  mind.  The  will  of  the  majority  is  the  most 
general  of  laws,  and  it  establishes  certain  habits  which  form 
the  characteristics  of  each  peculiar  class  of  society ;  thus  it  dic- 
tates the  etiquette  practised  at  courts  and  the  etiquette  of  the 
bar.  The  characteristics  of  the  French  journalist  consist  in  a 
violent,  but  frequently  an  eloquent  and  lofty,  manner  of  dis- 
cussing the  politics  of  the  day;  and  the  exceptions  to  this 
habitual  practice  are  only  occasional.  The  characteristics  of  the 
American  journalist  consist  in  an  open  and  coarse  appeal  to 
the  passions  of  the  populace;  and  he  habitually  abandons  the 
prmciples  of  political  science  to  assail  the  characters  of  individu- 
als, to  track  them  into  private  life,  and  disclose  all  their  weak- 
nesses and  errors. 

Nothing  can  be  more  deplorable  than  this  abuse  of  the  powers 
of  thought ;  I  shall  have  occasion  to  point  out  hereafter  the  in- 
fluence of  the  newspapers  upon  the  taste  and  the  morality  of  the 
American  people,  but  my  present  subject  exclusively  concerns 
the  political  world.  It  cannot  be  deniv  J  that  the  effects  of  this 
extreme  license  of  the  press  tend  indirectly  to  the  maintenance 
of  public  order.  The  individuals  who  are  already  in  the  pos- 
session of  a  high  station  in  the  esteem  of  their  fellow-citizens  are 
afraid  to  write  in  the  newspapers,  and  they  are  thus  deprived 
of  the  most  powerful  instrument  which  they  can  use  to  excite 
the  passions  of  the  multitude  to  their  own  advantage.^ 

The  personal  opinions  of  the  editors  have  no  kind  of  weight 
in  the  eyes  of  the  public :  the  only  use  of  a  journal  is,  that  it 
imparts  the  knowledge  of  certain  facts,  and  it  is  only  by  alter- 

a  They  only  write  in  the  papers  when  they  are  called  upon  to  repel  calumni- 
they  choose  to  address  the  people  in  ous  imputations,  and  to  correct  a  mis- 
their  own  name;  as,  for  instance,  when       statement  of  facts. 


^i  a. 


!      ; 


1 88 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


V' 


ing  or  distorting  those  facts  that  a  journalist  can  contribute  to 
the  support  of  his  own  views. 

But  although  the  press  is  limited  to  these  resources,  its  in- 
fluence in  America  is  immense.  It  is  the  power  which  impels 
the  circulation  of  political  life  through  all  the  districts  of  that 
vast  territory.  Its  eye  is  constantly  open  to  detect  the  secret 
springs  of  political  designs,  and  to  summon  the  leaders  of  all 
parties  to  the  bar  of  public  opinion.  It  rallies  the  interests  of  the 
community  round  certain  principles,  and  it  draws  up  the  creed 
which  factions  adopt ;  for  it  affords  a  means  of  intercourse  be- 
tween parties  which  hear,  and  which  address  each  other  without 
ever  having  been  in  immediate  contact.  When  a  great  number 
of  the  organs  of  the  press  adopt  the  same  line  of  conduct,  their 
influence  becomes  irresistible;  and  public  opinion,  when  it  is 
perpetually  assailed  from  the  same  side,  eventually  yields  to 
the  attack.  In  the  United  States  each  separate  journal  exercises 
but  little  authority,  but  the  power  of  the  periodical  press  is  only; 
second  to  that  of  the  people.* 


t     » 


The  opinions  established  in  the  United  States  under  the  empire  of  the 
liberty  of  the  press  are  frequently  more  firmly  rooted  than  those 
which  are  formed  elsewhere  under  the  sanction  of  a  censor. 

In  the  United  States  the  democracy  perpetually  raises  fresh 
individuals  to  the  conduct  of  public  affairs ;  and  the  measures 
of  the  administration  are  consequently  seldom  regulated  by  the 
strict  rules  of  consistency  or  of  order.  But  the  general  prin- 
ciples of  the  Government  are  more  stable,  and  the  opinions  most 
prevalent  in  society  are  generally  more  durable  than  in  many 
other  countries.  When  once  the  Americans  have  taken  up  an 
idea,  whether  it  be  well  or  ill  founded,  nothing  is  more  difficult 
than  to  eradicate  it  from  their  minds.  The  same  tenacity  of 
opinion  has  been  observed  in  England,  where,  for  the  last  cen- 
tury, greater  freedom  of  conscience  and  more  invincible  pre- 
judices have  existed  tb'^n  in  all  the  other  countries  of  Europe. 
I  attribute  this  consequence  to  a  cause  which  may  at  first  sight 
appear  to  have  a  very  opposite  tendency,  namely,  to  the  liberty 
of  the  press.  The  nations  amongst  which  this  liberty  exists  are 
as  apt  to  cling  to  their  opinions  from  pride  as  from  conviction. 
They  cherish  them  because  they  hold  them  to  be  just,  and  be- 

b  See  Appendix,  P. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


189 


cause  they  exercised  their  own  free-will  in  choosing  them ;  and 
they  maintain  them  not  only  because  they  are  true,  but  because 
they  arc  their  own.  Several  other  reasons  conduce  to  the  same 
end. 

It  was  remarked  by  a  man  of  genius  that  "  ignorance  lies  at 
the  two  ends  of  knowledge."  Perhaps  it  would  have  been  more 
correct  to  have  said,  that  absolute  convictions  are  to  be  met  with 
at  the  two  extremities,  and  that  doubt  lies  in  the  middle ;  for 
the  human  intellect  may  be  considered  in  three  distinct  states, 
which  frequently  succeed  one  another.  A  man  believes  im- 
plicitly, because  he  adopts  a  proposition  without  inquiry.  lie 
doubts  as  soon  as  he  is  assailed  by  the  objections  which  his  in- 
quiries may  have  aroused.  But  he  frequently  succeeds  in  satis- 
fying these  doubts,  and  then  he  begins  to  believe  afresh :  he  no 
longer  lays  hold  on  a  truth  in  its  most  shadowy  and  uncertain 
form,  but  he  sees  it  clearly  before  him,  and  he  advances  onwards 
by  the  light  it  gives  him.c 

When  the  liberty  of  the  press  acts  upon  men  who  are  in  the 
first  of  these  three  states,  it  does  not  immediately  disturb  their 
habit  of  believing  implicitly  without  investigation,  but  it  con- 
stantly modifies  the  objects  of  their  intuitive  convictions.  The 
human  mind  continues  to  discern  but  one  point  upon  the  whole 
intellectual  horizon,  and  that  point  is  in  continual  motion.  Such 
are  the  symptoms  of  sudden  revolutions,  and  of  the  misfortunes 
which  are  sure  to  befall  those  generations  which  abruptly  adopt 
the  unconditional  freedom  of  the  press. 

The  circle  of  novel  ideas  is,  however,  soon  terminated;  the 
touch  of  experience  is  upon  them,  and  the  doubt  and  mistrust 
which  their  uncertainty  produces  become  universal.  We  may 
rest  assured  that  the  majority  of  mankind  will  either  believe 
they  know  not  wherefore,  or  will  not  know  what  to  believe. 
Few  are  the  beings  who  can  ever  hope  to  attain  to  that  state  of 
rational  and  independent  conviction  which  true  knowledge  can 
beget  in  defiance  of  the  attacks  of  doubt. 

It  has  been  remarked  that  in  times  of  great  religious  fervor 
men  sometimes  change  their  religious  opinions;  whereas  in 
times  of  general  scepticism  everyone  clings  to  his  own  persua- 
sion. The  same  thing  takes  place  in  politics  under  the  liberty  of 
the  press.    In  countries  where  all  the  theories  of  social  science 


c  It  may,  however,  be  doubted 
whether  thn  rational  and  self-f^uiding 
conviction   arouses  as   much  fervor  or 


enthusiastic    devotedness    in 
their  first  dogmatical  belief. 


men    as 


H! 


•H 


I  ; 


V  '■   I 


fM\, 


\i     I 


190 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


have  been  contested  in  their  turn,  the  citizens  who  have  adopted 
one  of  them  stick  to  it,  not  so  much  because  they  are  assured  of 
its  excellence,  as  because  they  are  not  convinced  of  the  superior- 
ity of  any  other.  In  the  present  age  men  are  not  very  ready  to 
die  in  defence  of  their  opinions,  but  they  are  rarely  inclined  to 
change  them;  and  there  are  fewer  martyrs  as  well  as  fewer 
apostates. 

Another  still  more  valid  reason  may  yet  be  adduced:  when 
no  abstract  opinions  are  looked  upon  as  certain,  men  cling  to 
the  mere  propensities  and  external  interests  of  their  position, 
which  are  naturally  more  tangible  and  more  permanent  than 
any  opinions  in  the  world. 

It  is  not  a  question  of  easy  solution  whether  aristocracy  or 
democracy  is  most  fit  to  govern  a  country.  But  it  is  certain  that 
democracy  annoys  one  part  of  the  community,  and  that  aristoc- 
racy oppresses  another  part.  When  the  question  is  reduced  to 
the  simple  expression  of  the  struggle  between  poverty  and 
wealth,  the  tendency  of  each  side  of  the  dispute  becomes  per- 
fectly evident  without  further  controversy. 


'1    !, 


ih 


CHAPTER  XII 

POLITICAL  ASSOCIATIONS  IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Daily  use  which  the  Anglo-Americans  make  of  the  right  of  association 
— Three  kinds  of  political  associations — In  what  manner  the  Ameri- 
cans apply  the  representative  system  to  associations — Dangers  re- 
sulting to  the  State — Great  Convention  of  1831  relative  to  the  Tariff 
— Legislative  character  of  this  Convention — Why  the  unlimited  ex- 
ercise of  the  right  of  association  is  less  dangerous  in  the  United 
States  than  elsewhere — Why  it  may  be  looked  upon  as  necessary — 
Utility  of  associations  in  a  democratic  people. 

IN  no  country  in  the  world  has  the  principle  of  association 
been  more  successfully  used,  or  more  unsparingly  ap- 
plied to  a  multitude  of  different  objects,  than  in  America. 
Besides  the  permanent  associations  which  are  established  by 
law  under  the  names  of  townships,  cities,  and  counties,  a  vast 
number  of  others  are  formed  and  maintained  by  the  agency  of 
private  individuals. 

The  citizen  of  the  United  States  is  taught  from  his  earliest 
infancy  to  rely  upon  his  own  exertions  in  order  to  resist  the 
evils  and  the  difficulties  of  life ;  he  looks  upon  social  authority 
with  an  eye  of  mistrust  and  anxiety,  and  he  only  claims  its  as- 
sistance when  he  is  quite  unable  to  shift  without  it.  This  habit 
may  even  be  traced  in  the  schools  of  the  rising  generation, 
where  the  children  in  their  games  are  wont  to  submit  to  rules 
which  they  have  themselves  established,  and  to  punish  misde- 
meanors which  they  have  themselves  defined.  The  same  spirit 
pervades  every  act  of  social  life.  If  a  stoppage  occurs  in  a 
thoroughfare,  and  the  circulation  of  the  public  is  hindered,  the 
neighbors  immediately  constitute  a  deliberative  body ;  and  this 
extemporaneous  assembly  gives  rise  to  an  executive  power 
which  remedies  the  inconvenience  before  anybody  has  thought 
of  recurring  to  an  authority  superior  to  that  of  the  persons  im- 
mediately concerned.  If  the  public  pleasures  are  concerned,  an 
association  is  formed  to  provide  for  the  splendor  and  the  regu- 
larity of  the  entertainment.    Societies  are  formed  to  resist  en- 

191 


\>      I 


(  (i^ 


19a 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


emies  which  are  exclusively  of  a  moral  nature,  and  to  diminish 
the  vice  of  intemperance:  in  the  United  States  associations  are 
established  to  promote  public  order,  commerce,  industry,  moral- 
ity, and  religion;  for  there  is  no  end  which  the  human  will, 
seconded  by  the  collective  exertions  of  individuals,  despairs  of 
attaining. 

I  shall  hereafter  have  occasion  to  show  the  effects  of  associa- 
tion upon  the  course  of  society,  and  I  must  confine  myself  for  the 
present  to  the  political  world.  When  once  the  right  of  associa- 
tion is  recognized,  the  citizens  may  employ  it  in  several  different 
ways. 

An  association  consists  simply  in  the  public  assent  which  a 
number  of  individuals  give  to  certain  doctrines,  and  in  the  en- 
gagement which  they  contract  to  promote  the  spread  of  those 
doctrines  by  their  exertions.  The  right  of  association  with  these 
views  is  very  analogous  to  the  liberty  of  unlicensed  writing ;  but 
societies  thus  formed  possess  more  authority  than  the  press. 
When  an  opinion  is  represented  by  a  society,  it  necessarily  as- 
sumes a  more  exact  and  explicit  form.  It  numbers  its  partisans, 
and  compromises  their  welfare  in  its  cause :  they,  on  the  other 
hand,  become  acquainted  with  each  other,  and  their  zeal  is  in- 
creased by  their  number.  An  association  unites  the  efforts  of 
minds  which  have  a  tendency  to  diverge  in  one  single  channel, 
and  urges  them  vigorously  towards  one  single  end  which  it 
points  out. 

The  second  degree  in  the  right  of  association  is  the  power 
of  meeting.  When  an  association  is  allowed  to  establish  centres 
of  action  at  certain  important  points  in  the  country,  its  activity 
is  increased  and  its  influence  extended.  Men  have  the  oppor- 
tunity of  seeing  each  other ;  means  of  execution  are  more  readily 
combined,  and  opinions  are  maintained  with  a  degree  of  warmth 
and  energy  which  written  language  cannot  approach. 

Lastly,  in  the  exercise  of  the  right  of  political  association, 
there  is  a  third  degree :  the  partisans  of  an  opinion  may  unite 
in  electoral  bodies,  and  choose  delegates  to  represent  them  in  a 
central  assembly.  This  is,  properly  speaking,  the  application  of 
the  representative  system  to  a  party. 

Thus,  in  the  first  instance,  a  society  is  formed  between  indi- 
viduals professing  the  same  opinion,  and  the  tie  which  keeps 
it  together  is  of  a  purely  intellectual  nature ;  in  the  second  case, 
small  assemblies  are  formed  which  only  represent  a  fraction  of 


\> 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


193 


the  party.  Lastly,  in  the  third  case,  they  constitute  a  separate 
nation  in  the  midst  of  the  nation,  a  government  within  the  Gov- 
ernment. Their  delegates,  like  the  real  delegates  of  the  ma- 
jority, represent  the  entire  collective  force  of  their  party;  and 
they  enjoy  a  certain  degree  of  that  national  dignity  and  great 
influence  which  belong  to  the  chosen  representatives  of  the  peo- 
ple. It  is  true  that  they  have  not  the  right  of  making  the  laws, 
but  they  have  the  power  of  attacking  those  which  are  in  being, 
and  of  drawing  up  beforehand  those  which  they  may  afterwards 
cause  to  be  adopted. 

If,  in  a  people  which  is  imperfectly  accustomed  to  the  exer- 
cise of  freedom,  or  which  is  exposed  to  violent  political  passions, 
a  deliberating  minority,  which  confines  itself  to  the  contempla- 
tion of  future  laws,  be  placed  in  juxtaposition  to  the  legislative 
majority,  I  cannot  but  believe  that  public  tranquillity  incurs  very 
great  risks  in  that  nation.  There  is  doubtless  a  very  wide  differ- 
ence between  proving  that  one  law  is  in  itself  better  than  an- 
other and  proving  that  the  former  ought  to  be  substituted  for 
the  latter.  But  the  imagination  of  the  populace  is  very  apt  to 
overlook  this  difference,  which  is  so  apparent  to  the  minds  of 
thinking  men.  It  sometimes  happens  that  a  nation  is  divided 
into  two  nearly  equal  parties,  each  of  which  affects  to  represent 
the  majority.  If,  in  immediate  contiguity  to  the  directing 
power,  another  power  be  established,  which  exercises  almost  as 
much  moral  authority  as  the  former,  it  is  not  to  be  believed  that 
it  will  long  be  content  to  speak  without  acting ;  or  that  it  will 
always  be  restrained  by  the  abstract  consideration  of  the  nature 
of  associations  which  are  meant  to  direct  but  not  to  enforce  opin- 
ions, to  suggest  but  not  to  make  the  laws. 

The  more  we  consider  the  independence  of  the  press  in  its 
principal  consequences,  the  more  are  we  convinced  that  it  is  the 
chief  and,  so  to  speak,  the  constitutive  element  of  freedom  in 
the  modern  world,  A  nation  which  is  determined  to  remain  free 
is  therefore  right  in  demanding  the  unrestrained  exercise  of  this 
independence.  But  the  unrestrained  liberty  of  political  associa- 
tion cannot  be  entirely  assimilated  to  the  liberty  of  the  press. 
The  one  is  at  the  same  time  less  necessary  and  more  dangerous 
than  the  other.  A  nation  may  confine  it  within  certain  limits 
without  forfeiting  any  part  of  its  self-control ;  and  it  may  some- 
times be  obliged  to  do  so  in  order  to  maintain  its  own  authority. 

In  America  the  liberty  of  association  for  political  purposes 
Vol.  I.— 13 


194 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


I, a 


M 


is  anbounded.  An  example  will  show  in  the  clearest  light  to 
what  an  extent  this  privilege  is  tolerated. 

The  question  of  the  tariff,  or  of  free  trade,  produced  a  great 
manifestation  of  party  feeling  in  America;  the  tariff  was  not 
only  a  subject  of  debate  as  a  matter  of  opinion,  but  it  eriercised  a 
favorable  or  a  prejudicial  influence  upon  several  ver>  powerful 
interests  of  the  States.  The  North  attributed  a  great  portion  of 
its  prosperity,  and  the  South  all  its  sufferings,  to  this  system ; 
insomuch  that  for  a  long  time  the  tariff  was  the  sole  source  of 
the  political  animosities  which  agitated  the  Union. 

In  1831,  when  the  dispute  was  raging  with  the  utmost  viru- 
lence, a  private  citizen  of  Massachusetts  proposed  to  all  the 
enemies  of  the  tariff,  by  means  of  the  public  prints,  to  send  dele- 
gates to  Philadelphia  in  order  to  consult  together  upon  the  means 
which  were  most  fitted  to  promote  freedom  of  trade.  This  pro- 
posal circulated  in  a  few  days  from  Maine  to  New  Orleans  by 
the  power  of  the  printing-press:  the  opponents  of  the  tariff 
adopted  it  with  enthusiasm ;  meetings  were  formed  on  all  sides, 
and  delegates  were  named.  The  majority  of  these  individuals 
were  well  known,  and  some  of  them  had  earned  a  considerable 
degree  of  celebrity.  South  Carolina  alone,  which  afterwards 
took  up  arms  in  the  same  cause,  sent  sixty-three  delegates.  On 
October  i,  1831,  this  assembly,  which  according  to  the  American 
custom  had  taken  the  name  of  a  Convention,  met  at  Philadel- 
phia ;  it  consisted  of  more  than  two  hundred  members.  Its  de- 
bates were  public,  and  they  at  once  assumed  a  legislative  char- 
acter ;  the  extent  of  the  powers  of  Congress,  the  theories  of  free 
trade,  and  the  different  clauses  of  the  tariff,  were  discussed  in 
turn.  At  the  end  of  ten  days'  deliberation  the  Convention  broke 
up,  after  having  published  an  address  to  the  American  people, 
in  which  it  declared : 

I.  That  Congress  had  not  the  right  of  making  a  tariff,  and 
that  the  existing  tariff  was  unconstitutional ; 

II.  That  the  prohibition  of  free  trade  was  prejudicial  to  the 
interests  of  all  nations,  and  to  that  of  the  American  people  in 
particular. 

It  must  be  acknowledged  that  the  unrestrained  liberty  of  po- 
litical association  has  not  hitherto  produced,  in  the  United 
States,  those  fatal  consequences  which  might  perhaps  be  ex- 
pected from  it  elsewhere.  The  right  of  association  was  im- 
ported from  England,  and  it  has  always  existed  in  America; 


l*i 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


195 


to 


so  that  the  exercise  of  this  privilege  is  now  amalgamated  with 
the  manners  and  customs  of  the  people.  At  the  present  time 
the  liberty  of  association  is  become  a  necessary  guarantee 
against  the  tyranny  of  the  majority.  In  the  United  States,  as 
soon  as  a  party  is  become  preponderant,  all  public  authority 
passes  under  its  control ;  its  private  supporters  occupy  all  the 
places,  and  have  all  the  force  of  the  administration  at  their  dis- 
posal. As  the  most  distinguished  partisans  of  the  other  side  of 
the  question  are  unable  to  surmount  the  obstacles  which  exclude 
them  from  power,  they  require  some  means  of  establishing  them- 
selves upon  their  own  basis,  and  of  opposing  the  moral  au- 
thority of  the  minority  to  the  physical  power  which  domineers 
over  it.  Thus  a  dangerous  expedient  is  used  to  obviate  a  still 
more  formidable  danger. 

The  omnipotence  of  the  majority  appears  to  me  to  present 
such  extreme  perils  to  the  American  Republics  that  the  danger- 
ous measure  which  is  used  to  repress  it  seems  to  be  more  ad- 
vantageous than  prejudicial.  And  here  I  am  about  to  advance  a 
proposition  which  may  remind  the  reader  of  what  I  said  before 
in  speaking  of  municipal  freedom :  There  are  no  countries  in 
which  associations  are  more  needed,  to  prevent  the  despotism 
of  faction  or  the  arbitrary  power  of  a  prince,  than  those  whiqh 
are  democratically  constituted.  In  aristocratic  nations  the  body 
of  the  nobles  and  the  more  opulent  part  of  the  community  are  in 
themselves  natural  associations,  which  act  as  checks  upon  the 
abuses  of  power.  In  countries  in  which  these  associations  do 
not  exist,  if  private  individuals  are  unable  to  create  an  artificial 
and  a  temporary  substitute  for  them,  I  can  imagine  no  perma- 
nent protection  against  the  most  galling  tyranny ;  and  a  great 
people  may  be  oppressed  by  a  small  faction,  or  by  a  single  in- 
dividual, with  impunity. 

The  meeting  of  a  great  political  Convention  (for  there  are 
Conventions  of  all  kinds),  which  may  frequently  become  a 
necessary  measure,  is  always  a  serious  occurrence,  even  in 
America,  and  one  which  is  never  looked  forward  to,  by  '  ■ 
judicious  friends  of  the  country,  without  alarm.  This  was  very 
perceptible  in  the  Convention  of  1 831,  at  which  the  exertions  of 
all  the  most  distinguished  members  of  the  Assembly  tended  to 
moderate  its  language,  and  to  restrain  the  subjects  which  it 
treated  within  certain  limits.  It  is  probable,  in  fact,  that  the 
Convention  of  1831  exercised  a  very  great  influence  upon  the 


,«i , 


196 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


minds  of  the  malcontents,  and  prepared  them  for  the  open  re- 
volt against  the  commercial  laws  of  the  Union  which  took  place 
in  1832. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  unrestrained  liberty  of  associa- 
tion for  political  purposes  is  the  privilege  which  a  people  is 
longest  in  learning  how  to  exercise.  If  it  does  not  throw  the 
nation  into  anarchy,  it  perpetually  augments  the  chances  of  that 
calamity.  On  one  point,  however,  this  perilous  liberty  offers  a 
security  against  dangers  of  another  kind;  in  countries  where 
associations  are  free,  secret  societies  are  unknown.  In  America 
there  are  numerous  factions,  but  no  conspiracies. 


Different  ways  in  which  the  right  of  association  is  understood  in  Europe 
and  in  the  United  States — Different  use  which  is  made  of  it. 

The  most  natural  privilege  of  man,  next  to  the  right  of  acting 
for  himself,  is  that  of  combining  his  exertions  with  those  of  his 
fellow-creatures,  and  of  acting  in  common  with  them.  I  am 
therefore  led  to  conclude  that  the  right  of  association  is  almost 
as  inalienable  as  the  right  of  personal  liberty.  No  legislator  can 
attack  it  without  impairing  the  very  foundations  of  society. 
Nevertheless,  if  the  liberty  of  association  is  a  fruitful  source  of 
advantages  and  prosperity  to  some  nations,  it  may  be  perverted 
or  carried  to  excess  by  others,  and  the  element  of  life  may  be 
changed  into  an  element  of  destruction.  A  comparison  of  the 
different  methods  which  associations  pursue  in  those  countries 
in  which  they  are  managed  with  discretion,  as  well  as  in  those 
where  liberty  degenerates  into  license,  may  perhaps  be  thought 
useful  both  to  governments  and  to  parties. 

The  greater  part  of  Europeans  look  upon  an  association  as  a 
weapon  which  is  to  be  hastily  fashioned,  and  immediately  tried 
in  the  conflict.  A  society  is  formed  for  discussion,  but  the  idea 
of  impending  action  prevails  in  the  minds  of  those  who  consti- 
tute it:  it  is,  in  fact,  an  army;  and  the  time  given  to  parley 
serves  to  reckon  up  the  strength  and  to  animate  the  courage  of 
the  host,  after  which  they  direct  their  march  against  the  enemy. 
Resources  which  lie  within  the  bounds  of  the  law  may  suggest 
themselves  to  the  persons  who  compose  it  as  means,  but  never 
as  the  only  means,  of  success. 

Such,  however,  is  not  the  manner  in  which  the  right  of  asso- 
ciation is  understood  in  the  United  States.    In  America  the  citi- 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


197 


zens  who  form  the  minority  associate,  in  order,  in  the  first  place, 
to  show  their  numerical  strength,  and  so  to  diminish  the  moral 
authority  of  the  majority ;  and,  in  the  second  place,  to  stimulate 
competition,  and  to  discover  those  arguments  which  are  most 
fitted  to  act  upon  the  majority ;  for  they  always  entertain  hopes 
of  drawing  over  their  opponents  to  their  own  side,  and  of  after- 
wards disposing  of  the  supreme  power  in  their  name.  Political 
associations  in  the  United  States  are  therefore  peaceable  in  their 
intentions,  and  strictly  legal  in  the  means  which  they  employ ; 
and  they  assert  with  perfect  truth  that  they  only  aim  at  success 
by  lawful  expedients. 

The  difference  which  exists  between  the  Americans  and  our- 
selves depends  on  several  causes.  In  Europe  there  are  numer- 
ous parties  so  diametrically  opposed  to  the  majority  that  they 
can  never  hope  to  acquire  its  support,  and  at  the  same  time  they 
think  that  they  are  sufficiently  strong  in  themselves  to  struggle 
and  to  defend  their  cause.  When  a  party  of  this  kind  forms  an 
association,  its  object  is,  not  to  conquer,  but  to  fight.  In  America 
the  individuals  who  hold  opinions  very  much  opposed  to  those 
of  the  majority  are  no  sort  of  impediment  to  its  power,  and  all 
other  parties  hope  to  win  it  over  to  their  own  principles  in  the 
end.  The  exercise  of  the  right  of  association  becomes  dangerous 
in  proportion  to  the  impossibility  which  excludes  great  parties 
from  acquiring  the  majority.  In  a  country  like  the  United 
States,  in  which  the  differences  of  opinion  are  mere  differences 
of  hue,  the  right  of  association  may  remain  unrestrained  with- 
out evil  consequences.  The  inexperience  of  many  of  the  Euro- 
pean nations  in  the  enjoyment  of  liberty  leads  them  only  to 
look  upon  the  liberty  of  association  as  a  right  of  attacking  the 
Government.  The  first  notion  which  presents  itself  to  a  party, 
as  well  as  to  an  individual,  when  it  has  acquired  a  consciousness 
of  its  own  strength,  is  that  of  violence :  the  notion  of  persuasion 
arises  at  a  later  period  and  is  only  derived  from  experience. 
The  English,  who  are  divided  into  parties  which  differ  most 
essentially  from  each  other,  rarely  abuse  the  right  of  association, 
because  they  have  long  been  accustomed  to  exercise  it.  In 
France  the  passion  for  war  is  so  intense  that  there  is  no  under- 
taking so  mad,  or  so  injurious  to  the  welfare  of  the  State,  that  a 
man  does  not  consider  himself  honored  in  defending  it,  at  the 
risk  of  his  life. 

But  perhaps  the  most  powerful  of  the  causes  which  tend  to 


^.  ) 


198 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


I  , 


mitigate  the  excesses  of  political  association  in  the  United 
States  is  Universal  Suffrage.  In  countries  in  which  universal 
suffrage  exists  the  majority  is  never  doubtful,  because  neither 
party  can  pretend  to  represent  that  portion  of  the  community 
which  has  not  voted.  The  associations  which  are  formed  are 
aware,  as  well  as  the  nation  at  large,  that  they  do  not  represent 
the  majority :  this  is,  indeed,  a  condition  inseparable  from  their 
existence ;  for  if  they  did  represent  the  preponderating  power, 
they  would  change  the  law  instead  of  soliciting  its  reform.  The 
consequence  of  this  is  that  the  moral  influence  of  the  Govern- 
ment which  they  attack  is  very  much  increased,  and  their  own 
power  is  very  much  enfeebled. 

In  Europe  there  are  few  associations  which  do  not  affect  to 
represent  the  majority,  or  which  do  not  believe  that  they  repre- 
sent it.  This  conviction  or  this  pretension  tends  to  augment 
their  force  amazingly,  and  contributes  no  less  to  legalize  their 
measures.  Violence  may  seem  to  be  excusable  in  defence  of  the 
cause  of  oppressed  right.  Thus  it  is,  in  the  vast  labyrinth  of 
human  laws,  that  extreme  liberty  sometimes  corrects  the  abuses 
of  license,  and  that  extreme  democracy  obviates  the  dangers  of 
democratic  government.  In  Europe,  associations  consider 
themselves,  in  some  degree,  as  the  legislative  and  executive 
councils  of  the  people,  which  is  unable  to  speak  for  itself.  In 
America,  where  they  only  represent  a  minority  of  the  nation, 
they  argue  and  they  petition. 

The  means  which  the  associations  of  Europe  employ  are  in 
accordance  with  the  end  which  they  propose  to  obtain.  As  the 
principal  aim  of  these  bodies  is  to  act,  and  not  to  debate,  to 
fight  rather  than  to  persuade,  they  are  naturally  led  to  adopt  a 
form  of  organization  which  differs  from  the  ordinary  customs 
of  civil  bodies,  and  which  assumes  the  habits  and  the  maxims 
of  military  life.  They  centralize  the  direction  of  their  re- 
sources as  much  as  possible,  and  they  intrust  the  power  of  the 
whole  party  to  a  very  small  number  of  leaders. 

The  member,';  of  these  associations  respond  to  a  watchword, 
like  soldiers  on  duty ;  they  profess  the  doctrine  of  passive  obedi- 
ence: say  rather,  that  in  uniting  together  they  at  once  abjure 
the  exercise  of  their  own  judgment  and  free  will ;  and  the  tyran- 
nical control  which  these  societies  exercise  is  often  far  more  in- 
supportable than  the  authority  possessed  over  society  by  the 
Government  which  they  attack.     Their  moral  force  is  much 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


199 


diminished  by  these  excesses,  and  they  lose  the  powerful  inter- 
est which  is  always  excited  by  a  struggle  between  oppressors 
and  the  oppressed.  The  man  who  in  given  cases  consents  to 
obey  his  fellows  with  servility,  and  who  submits  his  activity  and 
even  his  opinions  to  their  control,  can  have  no  claim  to  rank 
as  a  free  citizen. 

The  Americans  have  also  established  certain  forms  of  govern- 
ment which  are  applied  to  their  associations,  but  these  are  invari- 
ably borrowed  from  the  forms  of  the  civil  administration.  The 
independence  of  each  individual  is  formally  recognized;  the 
tendency  of  the  members  of  the  association  points,  as  it  does 
in  the  body  of  the  community,  towards  the  same  end,  but  they 
are  not  obliged  to  follow  the  same  track.  No  one  abjures  the 
exercise  of  his  reason  and  his  free  will ;  but  every  one  exerts 
that  reason  and  that  will  for  the  benefit  of  a  common  under- 
taking. 


il 


w 


CHAPTER  XIII 

GOVERNMENT  OF  THE  DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 

I    AM  well  aware  of  the  difficulties  which  attend  this  part  of 
my  subject,  but  although  every  expression  which  I  am 
about  to  make  use  of  may  clash,  upon  some  one  point, 
with  the  feelings  of  the  different  parties  which  divide  my  coun- 
try, I  shall  speak  my  opinion  with  the  most  perfect  openness. 

In  Europe  we  are  at  a  loss  how  to  judge  the  true  character 
and  the  more  permanent  propensities  of  democracy,  because  in 
Europe  two  conflicting  principles  exist,  and  we  do  not  know 
what  to  attribute  to  the  principles  themselves,  and  what  to  refer 
to  the  passions  which  they  bring  into  collision.  Such,  however, 
is  not  the  case  in  America ;  there  the  people  reigns  without  any 
obstacle,  and  it  has  no  perils  to  dread  and  no  injuries  to  avenge. 
In  America,  democracy  is  swayed  by  its  own  free  propensities ; 
its  course  is  natural  and  its  activity  is  unrestrained ;  the  United 
States  consequently  afford  the  most  favorable  opportunity  of 
studying  its  real  character.  And  to  no  people  can  this  inquiry 
be  more  vitally  interesting  than  to  the  French  nation,  which  is 
blindly  driven  onwards  by  a  daily  and  irresistible  impulse  to- 
wards a  state  of  things  which  may  prove  either  despotic  or  re- 
publican, but  which  will  assuredly  be  democratic. 


l4.,    ^ 


Universal  Suffrage 

I  have  already  observed  that  universal  suffrage  has  been 
adopted  in  all  the  States  of  the  Union ;  it  consequently  occurs 
amongst  different  populations  which  occupy  very  different 
positions  in  the  scale  of  society.  I  have  had  opportunities  of 
observing  its  effects  in  different  localities,  and  amongst  races 
of  men  who  are  nearly  strangers  to  each  other  by  their  language, 
their  religion,  and  their  manner  of  life ;  in  Louisiana  as  well  as 
m  New  England,  in  Georgia  and  in  Canada.  I  have  remarked 
that  Universal  Suffrage  is  far  from  producing  in  America  cither 

200 


DEMOCRACY   IN  AMERICA 


201 


all  the  good  or  all  the  evil  consequences  which  are  assigned  to 
it  in  Europe,  and  that  its  effects  differ  very  widely  from  those 
which  are  usually  attributed  to  it.  • 


Choice  of  the  People,  and  Instinctive  Preferences  of 
THE  American  Democracy 

In  the  United  States  the  most  able  men  are  rarely  placed  at  the  head 
of  affairs — Reason  of  this  peculiarity — The  envy  which  prevails  in 
the  lower  orders  of  France  against  the  higher  classes  is  not  a  French, 
but  a  purely  democratic  sentiment — For  what  reason  the  most  dis- 
tinguished men  in  America  frequently  seclude  themselves  from  public 
afT-.Irs. 

Many  people  in  Europe  are  apt  to  believe  without  saying  it, 
or  to  say  without  believing  it,  that  one  of  the  great  advantages 
of  universal  suffrage  is,  that  it  entrusts  the  direction  of  public 
tf¥airs  to  men  who  are  worthy  of  the  public  confidence.  They 
admit  that  the  people  is  unable  to  govern  for  itself,  but  they 
aver  that  it  is  always  sincerely  disposed  to  promote  the  welfare 
of  the  State,  and  that  it  instinctively  designates  those  persons 
who  are  animated  by  the  same  good  wishes,  and  who  are  the 
most  fit  to  wield  the  supreme  authority.  I  confess  that  the 
observations  I  made  in  America  by  no  means  coincide  with 
these  opinions.  On  my  arrival  in  the  United  States  I  was  sur- 
prised to  find  so  much  distinguished  talent  among  the  subjects, 
and  so  little  among  the  heads  of  the  Government.  It  is  a  well- 
authenticated  fact,  that  at  the  present  day  the  most  able  men  in 
the  United  States  are  very  rarely  placed  at  the  head  of  afxairs ; 
and  it  must  be  acknowledged  that  such  has  been  the  result  in 
proportion  as  democracy  has  outstepped  all  its  former  limits. 
The  race  of  American  statesmen  has  evidently  dwindled  most 
remarkably  in  the  course  of  the  last  fifty  years. 

Several  causes  may  be  assigned  to  this  phenomenon.  It  is 
impossible,  notwithstanding  the  most  strenuous  exertions,  to 
raise  the  intelligence  of  the  people  above  a  certain  level.  What- 
ever may  be  the  facilities  of  acquiring  information,  whatever 
may  be  the  profusion  of  easy  methous  and  of  cheap  science,  the 
human  mind  can  never  be  instructed  and  educated  without  de- 
voting a  considerable  space  of  time  to  those  objects. 

The  greater  or  the  lesser  possibility  of  subsisting  without 
labor  is  therefore  the  necessary  boundary  of  intellectual  im- 
provement.   This  boundary  is  more  remote  in  some  countries 


1  h\ 


ao* 


DE  TOCQUEVILLR 


.v:- 


and  more  restricted  in  others ;  but  it  must  exist  somewhere  as 
long  as  the  i)ooplc  is  constrained  to  work  in  order  to  procure 
the  means  i)f  physical  subsistence,  that  is  to  say,  as  long  as  it 
retains  its  popular  character.  It  is  therefore  (juitc  as  difficult 
to  imagine  a  State  in  which  all  the  citizens  should  be  very  well 
informed  as  a  State  in  which  they  should  all  be  wealthy ;  these 
two  difficulties  may  be  looked  upon  as  correlative.  It  may 
very  readily  be  admitted  that  the  mass  of  the  citizens  are  sin- 
cerely disposed  to  promote  the  welfare  of  their  country ;  nay 
more,  it  may  even  be  allowed  that  the  lower  classes  are  less  apt 
to  be  swayed  by  considerations  of  personal  interest  than  the 
higher  orders :  but  it  is  always  more  or  less  impossible  for  them 
to  discern  the  best  means  of  attaining  the  end  which  they  desire 
with  sincerity.  Long  and  patient  observation,  joined  to  a  mul- 
titude of  different  notions,  is  required  to  form  a  just  estimate  of 
the  character  of  a  single  individual ;  and  can  it  be  supposed  that 
the  vulgar  have  the  power  of  succeeding  in  an  inquiry  which 
misleads  the  penetration  of  genius  itself?  The  people  has 
neither  the  time  nor  the  means  which  are  essential  to  the  pros- 
ecution of  an  investigation  of  this  kind:  its  conclusions  are 
hastily  formed  from  a  superficial  inspection  of  the  more  promi- 
nent features  of  a  question.  Hence  it  often  assents  to  the 
clamor  of  a  mountebank  who  knows  the  secret  of  stimulating 
its  tastes,  while  its  truest  friends  frequently  fail  in  their  exer- 
tions. 

Moreover,  the  democracy  is  not  only  deficient  in  that  sound- 
ness of  judgment  which  is  necessary  to  select  men  really  de- 
serving of  its  confidence,  but  it  has  neither  the  desire  nor  the 
inclination  to  find  them  out.  It  cannot  be  denied  that  demo- 
cratic institutions  have  a  very  strong  tendency  to  promote  the 
feeling  of  envy  in  the  human  heart ;  not  so  much  because  they 
afiford  to  every  one  the  means  of  rising  to  the  level  of  any  of 
his  fellow-citizens,  as  because  those  means  perpetually  disap- 
point the  persons  who  employ  them.  Democratic  institutions 
awaken  and  foster  a  passion  for  equality  which  they  can  never 
entirely  satisfy.  This  complete  equality  eludes  the  grasp  of 
the  people  at  the  very  moment  at  which  it  thinks  to  hold  it  fast, 
and  "  flies,"  as  Pascal  says,  "  with  eternal  flight " ;  the  people 
is  excited  in  the  pursuit  of  an  advantage,  which  is  more  precious 
because  it  is  not  sufficiently  remote  to  be  unknown,  or  suffi- 
ciently near  to  be  enjoyed.    The  lower  orders  are  agitated  by 


I. 


DEMOCRACY   IN   AMERICA 


303 


the  chance  of  success,  they  are  irritated  hy  its  uncertainty  ;  and 
they  j)ass  from  the  enthusiasm  of  pursuit  to  the  exhaustion  of 
ill-success,  and  lastly  to  the  acrimony  of  disappointment. 
Whatever  transcends  their  own  limits  appears  to  be  an  obstacle 
to  their  desires,  and  there  is  no  kind  of  superiority,  however 
legitimate  it  may  be,  which  is  not  irksome  in  their  sight. 

It  has  been  supposed  that'  the  secret  instinct  which  leads  the 
lower  orders  to  remove  their  superiors  as  much  as  possible  from 
the  direction  of  public  affairs  is  peculiar  to  France.  This,  how- 
ever, is  an  error ;  the  propensity  to  which  I  allude  is  not  inher- 
ent in  any  particular  nation,  but  in  democratic  institutions  in 
general ;  and  although  it  may  have  been  heightened  by  peculiar 
political  circumstances,  it  owes  its  origin  to  a  higher  cause. 

In  the  United  States  the  people  is  not  disposed  to  hate  the 
superior  classes  of  society ;  but  it  is  not  very  favorably  inclined 
towards  them,  and  it  carefully  excludes  them  from  the  exercise 
of  authority.  It  does  not  entertain  any  dread  of  distinguished 
talents,  but  it  is  rarely  captivated  by  them ;  and  it  awards  its 
approbation  very  sparingly  to  such  as  have  risen  without  the 
popular  support. 

Whilst  the  natural  propensities  of  democracy  induce  the  peo- 
ple to  reject  the  iv  l  distinguished  citizens  as  its  rulers,  these 
individuals  are  no  less  apt  to  retire  from  a  political  career  in 
which  it  is  almost  impossible  to  retain  their  independence,  or 
to  advance  without  degrading  themselves.  This  opinion  has 
been  very  candidly  set  forth  by  Chancellor  Kent,  who  says,  in 
speaking  with  great  eulogiums  of  that  part  of  the  Constitution 
which  empowers  the  Executive  to  nominate  the  judges :  "  It  is 
indeed  probable  that  the  men  who  are  best  fitted  to  discharge 
the  duties  of  this  high  ofifice  would  have  too  much  reserve  in 
their  manners,  and  too  much  austerity  in  their  principles,  for 
them  to  be  returned  by  the  majority  at  an  election  where  uni- 
versal suffrage  is  adopted."  Such  were  the  opinions  which 
were  printed  without  contradiction  in  America  in  the  year  1830! 

I  hold  it  to  be  sufficiently  demonstrated  that  universal  suf- 
frage is  by  no  means  a  guarantee  of  the  wisdom  of  the  popular 
choice,  and  that,  whatever  its  advantages  may  be,  this  is  not 
one  of  them. 


1^ 

I 


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Hi 


I' 


^,1      I, 
I 


M'.i 


204 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


II'    ' 


Causes  Which  May  Partly  Correct  These  Tendencies 

OF  THE  Democracy 

Contrary  effects  produced  on  peoples  as  well  as  on  individuals  by  great 
dangers — Why  so  many  distinguished  men  stood  at  the  head  of  af- 
fairs in  America  fifty  years  ago — Influence  which  the  intelligence 
and  the  manners  of  the  people  exercise  upon  its  choice — Example  of 
New  England — States  of  the  Southwest — Influence  of  certain  laws 
upon  the  choice  of  the  people — Election  by  an  elected  body — Its  ef- 
fects upon  the  composition  of  the  Senate. 

When  a  State  is  threatened  by  serious  dangers,  the  people 
frequently  succeeds  in  selecting  the  citizens  who  are  the  most 
able  to  save  it.  It  has  been  observed  that  man  rarely  retains 
his  customary  level  in  presence  of  very  critical  circumstances ; 
he  rises  above  or  he  sinks  below  his  usual  condition,  and  the 
same  thing  occurs  in  nations  at  large.  Extreme  perils  some- 
times quench  the  energy  of  a  people  instead  of  stimulating  it ; 
they  excite  without  directing  its  passions,  and  instead  of  clear- 
ing they  confuse  its  powers  of  perception.  The  Jews  deluged 
the  smoking  ruins  of  their  temple  with  the  carnage  of  the  rem- 
nant of  their  host.  Lut  it  is  more  common,  both  in  the  case  of 
nations  and  in  that  of  individuals,  to  find  extraordinary  virtues 
arising  from  the  very  imminence  of  the  danger.  Great  char- 
acters are  then  thrown  into  relief,  as  edifices  which  are  con- 
cealed by  the  gloom  of  night  are  illuminated  by  the  glare  of  a 
conflagration.  At  those  dan  ;  f  as  times  genius  no  longer 
abstains  from  presenting  itself  in  the  arena ,  and  the  people, 
alarmed  by  the  perils  of  its  situation,  buries  its  envious  passions 
in  a  short  oblivion.  Great  names  may  then  be  drawn  from  the 
balloting-box. 

I  have  already  observed  that  the  American  statesmen  of  the 
present  day  are  very  inferior  to  those  who  stood  at  the  head 
of  affairs  fifty  years  ago.  This  is  as  much  a  consequence  of 
the  circumstances  as  of  the  laws  of  the  country.  When  Amer- 
ica was  struggling  in  the  high  cause  of  independence  to  throw 
off  the  yoke  of  another  country,  and  when  it  was  about  to  usher 
a  new  nation  into  the  world,  the  spirits  of  its  inhabitants  were 
roused  to  the  height  which  their  great  efforts  required.  In  this 
general  excitement  the  most  distinguished  men  were  ready 
to  forestall  the  wants  of  the  community,  and  the  people  clung  to 
them  for  support,  and  placed  them  at  its  head.    But  events  of 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


205 


of 


this  magnitude  are  rare,  and  it  is  from  an  inspection  of  the 
ordinary  course  of  affairs  that  our  judgment  must  be  formed. 

If  passing  occurrences  sometimes  act  as  checks  upon  the  pas- 
sions of  democracy,  the  intelhgence  and  the  manners  of  the 
community  exercise  an  influence  which  is  not  less  powerful 
and  far  more  permanent.  This  is  extremely  perceptible  in  the 
United  States. 

In  New  England  the  education  and  the  liberties  of  the  com- 
munities were  engendered  by  the  moral  and  religious  principles 
of  their  founders.  Where  society  has  acquired  a  sufficient  de- 
gree of  stability  to  enable  it  to  hold  certain  maxims  and  to 
retain  fixed  habits,  the  lower  orders  are  accustomed  to  respect 
intellectual  superiority  and  to  submit  to  it  without  complaint, 
although  they  set  at  naugbt  all  those  privileges  which  wealth 
and  birth  have  introduced  among  mankind.  The  democracy 
in  New  England  consequently  makes  a  more  judicious  choice 
than  it  does  elsewhere. 

But  as  we  descend  towards  the  South,  to  those  States  in 
which  the  constitution  of  society  is  more  modern  and  less 
strong,  where  instruction  is  less  general,  and  where  the  prin- 
ciples of  morality,  of  religion,  and  of  liberty  are  less  happily 
combined,  we  perceive  that  the  talents  and  the  virtues  of  those 
who  are  in  authority  become  more  and  more  rare. 

Lastly,  when  we  arrive  at  the  new  South-western  States, 
in  which  the  constitution  of  society  dates  but  from  yesterday, 
and  presents  an  agglomeration  of  adventurers  and  speculators, 
we  are  amazed  at  the  persons  who  are  invested  with  public 
authority,  and  we  are  led  to  ask  by  what  force,  independent 
of  the  legislation  and  of  the  men  who  direct  it,  the  State  can 
be  protected,  and  society  be  made  to  flourish. 

There  are  certain  laws  of  a  democratic  nature  which  con- 
tribute, nevertheless,  to  correct,  in  some  measure,  the  dan- 
gerous tendencies  of  democracy.  On  entering  the  House  of 
Representatives  of  Washington  one  is  struck  by  the  vulgar 
demeanor  of  that  great  assembly.  The  eye  frequently  does 
not  discover  a  man  of  celebrity  within  its  walls.  Its  mem- 
bers are  almost  all  obscure  individuals  whose  names  present 
no  associations  to  the  mind :  they  are  mostly  village  lawyers, 
men  in  trade,  or  even  persons  belonging  to  the  lower  classes 
of  society.  In  a  country  in  which  education  is  very  general, 
it  is  said  that  the  representatives  of  the  people  do  not  always 
know  how  to  write  correctly. 


I 


'i 


^^ 


( 


11^ 


,.-simt~. 


ao6 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


i'     I 


■  ii 


...  I  • ! 

11 


At  a  few  yards'  distance  from  this  spot  is  the  door  of  the 
Senate,  which  contains  within  a  small  space  a  large  propor- 
tion of  the  celebrated  men  of  America.  Scarcely  an  indi- 
vidual is  to  be  perceived  in  it  who  does  not  recall  the  idea  of 
an  active  and  illustrious  career:  the  Senate  is  composed  of 
eloquent  advocates,  distinguished  generals,  wise  magistrates, 
and  statesmen  of  note,  whose  language  would  at  all  times  do 
honor  to  the  most  remarkable  parliamentary  debates  of 
Europe. 

What  then  is  the  cause  of  this  strange  contrast,  and  why 
are  the  most  able  citizens  to  be  found  in  one  assembly  rather 
than  in  the  other?  Why  is  the  former  body  remarkable  for 
its  vulgarity  and  its  poverty  of  talent,  whilst  the  latter  seems 
to  enjoy  a  monopoly  of  intelligence  and  of  sound  judgment? 
Both  of  these  assemblies  emanate  from  the  people;  both  of 
them  are  chosen  by  universal  suffrage;  and  no  voice  has 
hitherto  been  heard  to  assert  in  America  that  the  Senate 
is  hostile  to  the  interests  of  the  people.  From  what  cause, 
then,  does  so  startling  a  difference  arise?  The  only  reason 
which  appears  to  me  adequately  to  account  for  it  is,  that 
the  House  of  Representatives  is  elected  by  the  populace 
directly,  and  that  the  Senate  is  elected  by  elected  bodies. 
The  whole  body  of  the  citizens  names  the  legislature  of  each 
State,  and  the  Federal  Constitution  converts  these  legislatures 
into  so  many  electoral  bodies,  which  return  the  members  of 
the  Senate,  The  senators  are  elected  by  an  indirect  applica- 
tion of  universal  suffrage;  for  the  legislatures  which  name 
them  are  not  aristocratic  or  privileged  bodies  which  exercise 
the  electoral  franchise  in  their  own  right ;  but  they  are  chosen 
by  the  totality  of  the  citizens ;  they  are  generally  elected  every 
year,  and  new  members  may  constantly  be  chosen  who  will 
employ  their  electoral  rights  in  conformity  with  the  wishes  of 
the  public.  But  this  transmission  of  the  popular  authority 
through  an  assembly  of  chosen  men  operates  an  important 
change  in  it,  by  refining  its  discretion  and  improving  the  forms 
which  it  adopts.  Men  who  are  chosen  in  this  manner  ac- 
curately represent  the  majority  of  the  nation  which  governs 
them;  but  they  represent  the  elevated  thoughts  which  are 
current  in  the  community,  the  propensities  which  prompt  its 
nobler  actions,  rather  than  the  petty  passions  which  disturb  or 
the  vices  which  disgrace  it. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


207 


The  time  may  be  already  anticipated  at  which  the  American 
Republics  will  be  obliged  to  introduce  the  plan  of  election  by 
an  elected  body  more  frequently  into  their  system  of  repre- 
sentation, or  they  will  incur  no  small  risk  of  perishing  miserably 
amongst  the  shoals  of  democracy. 

And  here  I  have  no  scruple  in  confessing  that  I  look  upon 
this  peculiar  system  of  election  as  the  only  means  of  bring- 
ing the  exercise  of  political  power  to  the  level  of  all  classes 
of  the  people.  Those  thinkers  who  regard  this  institution 
as  the  exclusive  weapon  of  a  party,  and  those  who  fear,  on 
the  other  hand,  to  make  use  of  it,  seem  to  me  to  fall  into  as 
great  an  error  in  the  one  case  as  in  the  other. 

Influence  Which  the  American  Democracy  Has  Ex- 
ercised ON  THE  Laws  Relating  to  Elections 

When  elections  are  rare,  they  expose  the  State  to  a  violent  crisis — 
When  they  are  frequent,  they  keep  up  a  degree  of  feverish  excite- 
ment— The  Americans  have  preferred  the  second  of  these  two  evils 
— Mutability  of  the  laws — Opinions  of  Hamilton  and  Jefferson  on 
this  subject. 

When  elections  recur  at  long  intervals  the  State  is  exposed 
to  violent  agitation  every  time  they  take  place.  Parties  exert 
themselves  to  the  utmost  in  order  to  gain  a  prize  which  is  so 
rarely  within  their  reach ;  and  as  the  evil  is  almost  irremediable 
for  the  candidates  who  fail,  the  consequences  of  their  dis- 
appointed ambition  may  prove  most  disastrous;  if,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  legal  struggle  can  be  repeated  within  a  short 
space  of  time,  the  defeated  parties  take  patience.  When  elec- 
tions occur  frequently,  their  recurrence  keeps  society  in  a  per- 
petual state  of  feverish  excitement,  and  imparts  a  continual 
instability  to  public  aflfairs. 

Thus,  on  the  one  hand  the  State  is  exposed  to  the  perils  of  a 
revolution,  on  the  other  to  perpetual  mutability;  the  former 
system  threatens  the  very  existence  of  the  Government,  the 
latter  is  an  obstacle  to  all  steady  and  consistent  policy.  The 
Americans  have  preferred  the  second  of  these  evils  to  the  first ; 
but  they  were  led  to  this  conclusion  by  their  instinct  much 
more  than  by  their  reason ;  for  a  taste  for  variety  is  one  of  the 
characteristic  passions  of  democracy.  An  extraordinary  muta- 
bility has,  by  this  means,  been  introduced  into  their  legisla- 
tion.   Many  of  the  Americans  consider  the  instability  of  their 


'■V 


''  51 


!,'!! 


2o8 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


Uu 


laws  as  a  necessary  consequence  of  a  system  whose  general 
results  are  beneficial.  But  no  one  in  the  United  States  affects 
to  deny  the  fact  of  this  instability,  or  to  contend  that  it  is  not 
a  great  evil. 

Hamilton,  after  having  demonstrated  the  utility  of  a  power 
which  might  prevent,  or  which  might  at  least  impede,  the 
promulgation  of  bad  laws,  adds :  "  It  might  perhaps  be  said  that 
the  power  of  preventing  bad  laws  includes  that  of  preventing 
good  ones,  and  may  be  used  to  the  one  purpose  as  well  as  to 
the  other.  But  this  objection  will  have  little  weight  with  those 
who  can  properly  estimate  the  mischiefs  of  that  inconstancy 
and  mutability  in  the  laws  which  form  the  greatest  blemish 
in  the  character  and  genius  of  our  governments."  (Federalist, 
No.  73.)  And  again  in  No.  62  of  the  same  work  he  observes : 
"  The  facility  and  excess  of  law-making  seem  to  be  the  diseases 
to  which  our  governments  are  most  liable.  .  .  .  The  mis- 
chievous effects  of  the  mutability  in  the  public  councils  aris- 
ing from  a  rapid  succession  of  new  members  would  fill  a 
volume :  every  new  election  in  the  States  is  found  to  change  one- 
half  of  the  representatives.  From  this  change  of  men  must 
proceed  a  change  of  opinions  and  of  measures,  which  forfeits 
the  respect  and  confidence  of  other  nations,  poisons  the  bless- 
ings of  liberty  itself,  and  diminishes  the  attachment  and  rever- 
ence of  the  people  toward  a  political  system  which  betrays  so 
many  marks  of  infirmity." 

Jefferson  himself,  the  greatest  Democrat  whom  the  democ- 
racy of  America  has  yet  produced,  pointed  out  the  same  evils. 
"  The  instability  of  our  laws,"  said  he  in  a  letter  to  Madison, 
"  is  really  a  very  serious  inconvenience.  I  think  that  we  ought 
to  have  obviated  it  by  deciding  that  a  whole  year  should  always 
be  allowed  to  elapse  between  the  bringing  in  of  a  bill  and  the 
final  passing  of  it.  It  should  afterward  be  discussed  and  put 
to  the  vote  without  the  possibility  of  making  any  alteration  in 
it ;  and  if  the  circumstances  of  the  case  required  a  more  speedy 
decision,  the  question  should  not  be  decided  by  a  simple  ma- 
jority, but  by  a  majority  of  at  least  two-thirds  of  both  houses." 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


209 


Public  Officers  Under  the  Control  of  the  Democracy 

IN  America 

Simple  exterior  of  the  American  public  officers — No  official  costume — 
All  public  officers  are  remunerated — Political  consequences  of  this 
system — No  public  career  exists  in  America — Result  of  this. 

Public  officers  in  the  United  States  are  commingled  with 
the  crowd  of  citizens;  they  have  neither  palaces,  nor  guards, 
nor  ceremonial  costumes.  This  simple  exterior  of  the  per- 
sons in  authority  is  connected  not  only  with  the  peculiarities 
of  the  American  character,  but  with  the  fundamental  princi- 
ples of  that  society.  In  the  estimation  of  the  democracy  a 
government  is  not  a  benefit,  but  a  necessary  evil.  A  certain 
degree  of  power  mus^  be  granted  to  public  officers,  for  they 
would  be  of  no  use  without  it.  But  the  ostensible  semblance 
of  authority  is  by  no  means  indispensable  to  the  conduct  of 
affairs,  and  it  is  needlessly  offensive  to  the  susceptibility  of 
the  public.  The  public  officers  themselves  are  well  aware 
that  they  only  enjoy  the  superiority  over  their  fellow-citizens 
which  they  derive  from  their  authority  upon  condition  of  put- 
ting themselves  on  a  level  with  the  whole  community  by  their 
manners.  A  public  officer  in  the  United  States  is  uniformly 
civil,  accessible  to  all  the  world,  attentive  to  all  requests,  and 
obliging  in  his  replies.  I  was  pleased  by  these  characteristics 
of  a  democratic  government ;  and  I  was  struck  by  the  manly 
independence  of  the  citizens,  who  respect  the  office  more  than 
the  officer,  and  who  are  less  attached  to  the  emblems  of  au- 
thority than  to  the  man  who  bears  them. 

I  am  inclined  to  believe  that  the  influence  which  costumes 
really  exercise,  in  an  age  like  that  in  which  we  live,  has  been 
a  good  deal  exaggerated.  I  never  perceived  that  a  public  officer 
in  America  was  the  less  respected  whilst  he  was  in  the  dis- 
charge of  his  duties  because  his  own  merit  was  set  off  by  no 
adventitious  signs.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  very  doubtful 
whether  a  pecul'ar  dress  contributes  to  the  respect  which  public 
characters  ought  to  have  for  their  own  position,  at  least  when 
they  are  not  otherwise  inclined  to  respect  it.  When  a  magis- 
trate (and  in  France  such  instances  are  not  rare)  indulges  his 
trivial  wit  at  the  expense  of  the  prisoner,  or  derides  the  pre- 
dicament in  which  a  culprit  is  placed,  it  would  be  well  to  de- 
prive him  of  his  robes  of  office,  to  see  whether  he  would  recall 
Vol.  I.— 14 


3ZO 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


;> 


id   I 
It  ,' 


some  portion  of  the  natural  dignity  of  mankind  when  he  is 
reduced  to  the  apparel  of  a  private  citizen. 

A  democracy  may,  however,  allow  a  certain  show  of  magis- 
terial pomp,  and  clothe  its  officers  in  silks  and  gold,  without 
seriously  compromising  its  principles.  Privileges  of  this  kind 
are  transitory ;  they  belong  to  the  place,  and  are  distinct  from 
the  individual :  but  if  public  officers  are  not  uniformly  remu- 
nerated by  the  State,  the  public  charges  must  be  entrusted  to 
men  of  opulence  and  independence,  who  constitute  the  basis 
of  an  aristocracy;  and  if  the  people  still  retains  its  right  of 
election,  that  election  can  only  be  made  from  a  certain  class 
of  citizens.  When  a  democratic  republic  renders  offices  which 
had  formerly  been  remunerated  gratuitous,  it  may  safely  be 
believed  that  the  State  is  advancing  to  monarchical  institutions ; 
and  when  a  monarchy  begins  to  remunerate  such  officers  as  had 
hitherto  been  unpaid,  it  is  a  sure  sign  that  it  is  approaching 
toward  a  despotic  or  a  republican  form  of  government.  The 
substitution  of  paid  for  unpaid  functionaries  is  of  itself,  in  my 
opinion,  sufficient  to  constitute  a  serious  revolution. 

I  look  upon  the  ,entire  absence  of  gratuitous  functionaries 
in  America  as  one  of  the  most  prominent  signs  of  the  absolute 
dominion  which  democracy  exercises  in  that  country.  All 
public  services,  of  whatsoever  nature  they  may  be,  are  paid; 
so  that  every  one  has  not  merely  the  right,  but  also  the  means 
of  performing  them.  Although,  in  democratic  States,  all  the 
citizens  are  qualified  to  occupy  stations  in  the  Government,  all 
are  not  tempted  to  try  for  them.  The  number  and  the  capaci- 
ties of  the  candidates  are  more  apt  to  restrict  the  choice  of 
electors  than  the  conditions  of  the  candidateship. 

In  nations  in  which  the  principle  of  election  extends  to  every 
place  in  the  State  no  political  career  can, '  properly  speaking, 
be  said  to  exist.  Men  are  promoted  as  if  by  chance  to  the  rank 
which  they  enjoy,  and  they  are  by  no  means  sure  of  retaining 
it.  The  consequence  is  that  in  tranquil  times  public  functions 
oflfer  but  few  lures  to  ambition.  In  the  United  States  the  per- 
sons who  engage  in  the  perplexities  of  political  life  are  in- 
dividuals of  very  moderate  pretensions.  The  pursuit  of  wealth 
generally  diverts  men  of  great  talents  and  of  great  passions 
from  the  pursuit  of  power,  and  it  very  frequently  happens  that 
a  man  does  not  undertake  to  direct  the  fortune  of  the  State 
until  he  ha*    '"-covered  his  incompetence  tp  conduct  his  own 


:  of 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


211 


affairs.  The  vast  number  of  very  ordinary  men  who  occupy 
public  stations  is  quite  as  attributable  to  these  causes  as  to  the 
bad  choice  of  the  democracy.  In  the  United  States,  I  am  not 
sure  that  the  people  would  return  the  men  of  superior  abilities 
who  might  Solicit  its  support,  but  it  is  certain  that  men  of  this 
description  do  not  come  forward. 

Arbitrary  Power  of  Magistrates  Under  the  Rule  of  the 
American  Democracy 

For  what  reason  the  arbitrary  power  of  Magistrates  is  greater  in  ab- 
solute monarchies  and  in  democratic  republics  than  it  is  it;  limited 
monarchies — Arbitrary  powe    "■      t  Magistrates  in  New  England. 

In  two  different  kinds  of  government  the  magistrates  a  ex- 
ercise a  considerable  degree  of  arbitrary  power ;  namely,  under 
the  absolute  government  of  a  single  individual,  and  under 
that  of  a  democracy.  This  identical  result  proceeds  from 
causes  which  are  nearly  analogous. 

In  despotic  States  the  fortune  of  no  citizen  is  secure;  and 
public  officers  are  not  more  safe  than  private  individuals.  The 
sovereign,  who  has  under  his  control  the  lives,  the  property, 
and  sometimes  the  honor  of  the  men  whom  he  employs,  does 
not  scruple  to  allow  them  a  great  latitude  of  action,  because  he 
is  convinced  that  they  will  not  use  it  to  his  prejudice,  in 
despotic  States  the  sovereign  is  so  attached  to  the  exercise  of 
his  power,  that  he  dislikes  the  constraint  even  of  his  own  regu- 
lations ;  and  he  is  well  pleased  that  his  agents  should  follow  a 
somewhat  fortuitous  line  of  conduct,  provided  he  be  certain 
that  their  actions  will  never  counteract  his  desires. 

In  democracies,  as  the  majority  has  every  year  the  right  of 
depriving  the  officers  whom  it  has  appointed  of  their  power, 
it  has  no  reason  to  fear  any  abuse  of  their  authority.  As  the 
people  is  always  able  to  signify  its  wishes  to  those  who  con- 
duct the  Government,  it  prefers  leaving  them  to  make  their 
own  exertions  to  prescribing  an  invariable  rule  of  conduct 
which  would  at  once  fetter  their  activity  and  the  popular  au- 
thority. 

It  may  even  be  observed,  on  attentive  consideration,  that 
under  the  rule  of  a  democracy  the  arbitrary  power  of  the 


a  I  here  use  the  word_  magistrates  in 
the  widest  sense  in  which  it  can  be 
taken;  I  apply  it  to  all  the  ofiicers  to 


whom  the  execution  of  the  laws  is  in- 
trusted, 


II 

1 


'  I  '.I 


1?      I 


aia 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


I*    \' 


Ui 


magistrate  must  be  still  greater  than  in  despotic  States.  In 
the  latter  the  sovereign  has  the  power  of  punishing  all  the 
faults  with  whicl.  e  becomes  acquainted,  but  it  would  be  vain 
for  him  to  hope  to  become  acquainted  with  all  those  which  are 
committed.  In  the  former  the  sovereign  power*  is  not  only 
supreme,  but  it  is  universally  present.  The  American  func- 
tiona  ies  are,  in  point  of  fact,  rnuch  more  independent  in  the 
sphere  of  action  v  'lich  the  law  traces  out  for  them  than  any 
public  officer  in  Europe.  Very  frequently  the  object  which 
they  are  to  accomplish  is  simply  pointed  out  to  them,  and  the 
choice  of  the  means  is  left  to  their  own  discretion. 

In  New  England,  for  instance,  the  selectmen  of  each  town- 
ship are  bound  to  draw  up  the  list  of  persons  who  are  to  serve 
on  the  jury ;  the  only  rule  which  is  laid  down  to  guide  them  in 
their  choice  is  that  they  are  to  select  citizens  possessing  the 
elective  franchise  and  enjoying  a  fair  reputation.^  In  France 
the  lives  and  liberties  of  the  subjects  would  be  thought  to  be 
in  danger  if  a  public  officer  of  any  kind  was  entr'  i  with  so 
formidable  a  right.  In  New  England  the  same  magistrates  are 
empowered  to  post  the  names  of  habitual  drunkards  in  public- 
houses,  and  to  prohibit  the  inhabitants  of  a  town  from  supply- 
ing them  with  liquor.c  A  censorial  power  of  this  excessive  kind 
would  be  revolting  to  the  population  of  the  most  absolute  mon- 
archies ;  here,  however,  it  is  submitted  to  without  difficulty. 

Nowhere  has  so  much  been  left  by  *'  .w  to  the  arbitrary 
determination  of  the  magistrate  as  in  dc  cratic  republics,  be- 
cause this  arbitrary  power  is  unattended  by  any  alarming  con- 
sequences. It  may  even  be  asserted  that  the  freedom  of  the 
magistrate  increases  as  the  elective  franchise  is  extended,  and 
as  the  duration  of  the  time  of  office  is  shortened.  Hence  arises 
the  great  difficulty  which  attends  the  conversion  of  a  demo- 
cratic republic  into  a  monarchy.  The  magistrate  ceases  to  be 
elective,  but  he  retains  the  rights  and  the  habits  of  an  elected 
officer,  which  lead  directly  to  despotism. 

It  is  only  in  limited  monarchies  that  the  law,  which  pre- 
scribes the  sphere  in  which  public  officers  are  to  act,  superin- 
tends all  their  measures.  The  cause  of  this  may  be  easily  de- 
tected.   In  limited  monarchies  the  power  is  divided  between 

b  See  the  Act  of  February  27,  1813.  c  See  Act  of  February  28,  1787.    "  Gen- 

"  General    Collection    of   the    Laws    of        cral   Collection  of  the   Laws  of  Massa- 
Massachusetts,"  vol.  ii.  p.  331.  It  should        chusetts,"  vol.  i.  o.  302. 
be  added  that  the  jurors  are  afterwards 
drawn  from  these  lists  by  lot. 


1 


nl      i 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


213 


the  King  and  the  people,  both  of  whom  are  interested  in  the 
stabiHty  of  the  magistrate.  •  The  King  does  not  venture  to  place 
the  public  officers  under  the  control  of  the  people,  lest  they 
should  be  tempted  to  betray  his  interests ;  on  the  other  hand, 
the  people  fears  lest  the  magistrates  should  serve  to  oppress 
the  liberties  of  the  country,  if  they  were  entirely  dependent 
upon  the  Crown ;  they  cannot  therefore  be  said  to  depend  on 
either  one  or  the  other.  The  same  cause  which  induces  the 
king  and  the  people  to  render  public  officers  independent  sug- 
gests the  necessity  of  such  securities  as  may  prevent  their  in- 
dependence from  encroaching  upon  the  authority  of  the  for- 
mer and  the  liberties  of  the  latter.  They  consequently  agree 
as  to  the  necessity  of  restricting  the  functionary  to  a  line  of 
conduct  laid  down  beforehand,  and  they  are  interested  in  con- 
fining him  by  certain  regulations  which  he  cannot  evade. 


Instability  of  the  Administration  in  the  United  States 

In  America  the  public  acts  of  a  community  frequently  leave  fewer  traces 
than  the  occurrences  of  a  family — Newspapers  the  only  historical  re- 
mains— Instability  of  the  administration  prejudicial  to  the  art  of 
government. 

The  authority  which  public  men  possess  in  America  is  so 
brief,  and  they  are  so  soon  commingled  with  the  ever-chang- 
ing population  of  the  country,  that  the  acts  of  a  community 
frequently  leave  fewer  traces  than  the  occurrences  of  a  private 
family.  The  public  administration  is,  so  to  speak,  oral  and 
traditionary.  But  little  is  committed  to  writing,  and  that  little 
is  wafted  away  forever,  like  the  leaves  of  the  Sibyl,  by  the 
smallest  breeze. 

The  only  historical  remains  in  the  United  States  are  the  news- 
papers; but  if  a  number  be  wanting,  the  chain  of  time  is 
broken,  and  the  present  is  severed  from  the  past.  I  am  con- 
vinced that  in  fifty  years  it  will  be  more  difficult  to  collect  au- 
thentic documents  concerning  the  social  condition  of  the  Amer- 
icans at  the  present  day  than  it  is  to  find  remains  of  the  admin- 
istration of  France  during  the  Middle  Ages ;  and  if  the  United 
States  were  ever  invaded  by  barbarians,  it  would  be  necessary 
to  have  recourse  to  the  history  of  other  nations  in  order  to  learn 
anything  of  the  people  which  now  inhabits  them. 


I  1 


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1 


■r*MH*WMMiM£MUi 


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414 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


*.)" 


The  instability  of  the  administration  has  penetrated  into  the 
habits  of  the  people :  it  even  appears  to  suit  the  general  taste, 
and  no  one  cares  for  what  occurred  before  his  time.  No  me- 
thodical system  is  pursued;  no  archives  are  formed;  and  no 
documents  are  brought  together  when  it  would  be  very  easy 
to  do  so.  Where  they  exist,  little  store  is  set  upon  them ;  and 
I  have  amongst  my  papers  several  original  public  documents 
which  were  given  to  me  in  answer  to  some  of  my  inquiries. 
In  America  society  seems  to  live  from  hand  to  mouth,  like  an 
army  in  the  field.  Nevertheless,  the  art  of  administration  '.nay 
undoubtedly  be  ranked  as  a  science,  and  no  sciences  can  be 
improved  if  the  discoveries  and  observations  of  successive  gen- 
erations are  not  connected  together  in  the  order  in  which  they 
occur.  One  man,  in  the  short  space  of  his  life  remarks  a  fact ; 
another  conceives  an  idea ;  the  former  invents  a  means  of  exe- 
cution, the  latter  reduces  a  truth  to  a  fixed  proposition;  and 
mankind  gathers  the  fruits  of  individual  experience  upon  its 
way  and  gradually  forms  the  sciences.  But  the  persons  who 
conduct  the  administration  in  America  can  seldom  aflford  any 
instruction  to  each  other ;  and  when  they  assume  the  direct'on 
of  society,  they  simply  possess  those  attainments  which  are 
most  widely  disseminated  in  the  community,  and  no  experience 
peculiar  to  themselves.  Democracy,  carried  to  its  furthest 
limits,  is  therefore  prejudicial  to  the  art  of  government;  and 
for  this  reason  it  is  better  adapted  to  a  people  already  versed 
in  the  conduct  of  an  administration  than  to  a  nation  which  i;? 
uninitiated  in  public  affairs. 

This  remark,  indeed,  is  not  exclusively  applicable  to  the  sci- 
ence of  administration.  Although  a  democratic  government 
is  founded  upon  a  very  simple  and  natural  principle,  it  always 
presupposes  the  existence  of  a  high  degree  of  culture  and  en- 
lightenment in  society .rf  At  the  first  glance  it  may  be  imagined 
to  belong  to  the  earliest  ages  of  the  world ;  but  maturer  ob- 
servation will  convince  us  that  it  could  only  come  last  in  the 
succession  of  human  history. 


d  It   is   needless   to    observe   that    I 
speak  here  of  the  democratic  form' of 


government  as  applied  to  a  people,  not 
merely  to  a  tribe. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


"5 


Charges  Levied  by  the  State  Under  the  Rule  op  the 
American  Democracy 

In  all  communities  citizens  divisible  into  three  classes — Habits  of  each 
of  these  classes  in  the  direction  of  public  finances — Why  public  ex- 
penditure must  tend  to  increase  when  the  people  governs — What 
renders  the  extravagance  of  a  democracy  less  to  be  feared  in 
America — Public  expenditure  under  a  democracy. 

Before  we  can  aflfirm  whether  a  democratic  form  of  govern- 
ment is  economical  or  not,  we  must  establish  a  suitable  standard 
of  comparison.  The  question  would  be  one  of  easy  solution 
if  we  were  to  attempt  to  draw  a  parallel  between  a  democratic 
republic  and  an  absolute  monarchy.  The  public  expenditure 
would  be  found  to  be  more  considerable  under  the  former  than 
under  the  latter ;  such  is  the  case  with  all  free  States  compared 
to  those  which  are  not  so.  It  is  certain  that  despotism  ruins 
individuals  by  preventing  them  from  producing  wealth,  much 
more  than  by  depriving  them  of  the  wealth  they  have  produced ; 
it  dries  up  the  source  of  riches,  whilst  it  usually  respects  ac- 
quired property.  Freedom,  on  the  contrary,  engenders  far 
more  benefits  than  it  destroys;  and  the  nations  which  are  fa- 
vored by  free  institutions  invariably  find  that  their  resources 
increase  even  more  rapidly  than  their  taxes. 

My  present  object  is  to  compare  free  nations  to  each  other, 
and  to  point  out  the  influence  of  democracy  upon  the  finances 
of  a  State. 

Communities,  as  well  as  organic  bodies,  are  subject  to  certain 
fixed  rules  in  their  formation  which  they  cannot  evade.  They 
are  composed  of  certain  elements  which  are  common  to  them 
at  all  times  and  ur.der  all  circumstances.  The  people  may 
always  be  mentally  divided  into  three  distinct  classes.  The  first 
of  these  classes  consists  of  the  wealthy;  the  second,  of  those 
who  are  in  easy  circumstances ;  and  the  third  is  composed  of 
those  who  have  little  or  no  property,  and  who  subsist  more  es- 
pecially by  the  work  which  they  perform  for  the  two  superior 
orders.  The  proportion  of  the  individuals  who  are  included  in 
these  three  divisions  may  vary  according  to  the  condition  of 
society,  but  the  divisions  themselves  can  never  be  obliterated. 

It  is  evident  that  each  of  these  classes  will  exercise  an  influ- 
ence peculiar  to  its  own  propensities  upon  the  administration 
of  the  finances  of  the  State.    If  the  first  of  the  three  exclusively 


\i, 


'l! 


Vii 


m 


ij. 


I . 


wjaija  ui  t  !•"  imkt«(*^ 


ai6 


DE  TOCgUli ViLLE 


fu 


possesses  tlic  legislative  power,  it  is  probable  tliat  it  will  not 
be  sparing  of  the  public  fluids,  because  the  taxes  which  are 
levied  on  a  large  fortune  only  tend  to  diminish  the  sum  of  super- 
fluous enjoyment,  and  are,  in  point  of  fact,  but  little  felt.  If 
the  second  class  has  the  power  of  making  the  laws,  it  will  cer- 
tainly not  be  lavish  of  taxes,  because  nothing  is  so  onerous  as 
a  large  impost  which  is  levied  upon  a  small  income.  The  gov- 
ernment of  the  middle  classes  appears  to  me  to  be  the  most 
economical,  though  perhaps  not  the  most  enlightened,  and  cer- 
tainly not  the  most  gei  orous,  of  free  governments. 

But  let  us  now  suppose  that  the  legislative  authority  is  vested 
in  the  lowest  orders:  there  are  two  striking  reasons  which 
show  that  the  tendency  of  the  expenditure  will  be  to  increase, 
not  to  diminish.  As  the  great  majority  of  those  who  create 
the  laws  are  possessed  of  no  property  upon  which  taxes  can  be 
imposed,  all  the  money  which  is  spent  for  the  community  ap- 
pears to  be  spent  to  their  advantage,  at  no  cost  of  their  own ; 
and  those  who  arc  possessed  of  some  little  property  readily 
find  means  of  regulating  the  taxes  so  that  they  are  burdensome 
to  the  wealthy  and  profitable  to  the  poor,  although  the  rich  are 
unable  to  take  the  same  advantage  when  they  are  in  possession 
of  the  Government. 

In  countries  in  which  the  poorc  should  be  exclusively  in- 
vested with  the  power  of  making  the  laws  no  great  economy  of 
public  expenditure  ought  to  be  expected :  that  expenditure  will 
always  be  considerable ;  either  because  the  taxes  do  not  weigh 
upon  those  who  levy  them,  or  because  they  arc  levied  in  such 
a  manner  as  not  to  weigh  upon  those  classes.  In  other  words, 
the  government  of  the  democracy  is  the  only  one  under  which 
the  power  which  lays  on  taxes  escapes  the  payment  of  them. 

It  may  be  objected  (but  the  argument  has  no  real  weight) 
that  the  true  interest  of  the  people  is  indissolubly  connected 
with  that  of  the  wealthier  portion  of  the  community,  since  it 
cannot  but  suflfer  by  the  severe  measures  to  which  it  resorts. 
But  is  it  not  the  true  interest  of  kings  to  render  their  subjects 
happy,  and  the  true  interest  of  nobles  to  admit  recruits  into 
their  order  on  suitable  grounds?  If  remote  advantages  had 
power  to  prevail  over  the  passions  and  the  exigencies  of  the 


t  The  word  Poor  is  used  here,  and 
throuRhout  the  remainder  of  this  chap- 
ter, in  a  relative,  not  in  an  absolute 
sense.      Poor    men    in    America   would 


often  appear  rich  in  comparison  with 
the  poor  of  Europe;  but  they  may  with 
propriety  by  styled  poor  in  comparison 
with  their  more  affluent  countrymen. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


917 


moment,  no  such  thing  as  a  tyrannical  sovereign  or  an  exclusive 
aristocracy  couUl  cvir  exist. 

Again,  it  may  be  ohjected  that  the  poor  arc  never  invested 
with  the  sole  power  of  making  the  laws  ;  but  I  reply,  that  wher- 
ever universal  sulTrage  has  been  established  the  majority  of 
the  conmnmity  un(|uestional)Iy  exercises  the  legislative  author- 
ity;  and  if  it  be  proved  that  the  poor  always  constitute  the 
majority,  it  may  be  added,  with  perfect  truth,  that  in  the  coun- 
tries in  which  they  possess  the  elective  franchise  they  possess 
the  sole  power  of  making  laws-.  But  it  is  certain  that  in  all  the 
nations  of  the  world  the  greater  number  has  always  consisted 
of  those  persons  who  hold  no  property,  or  of  those  whose  prop- 
erty is  insufticient  to  exempt  them  from  the  r^'cessity  of  working 
in  order  to  procure  an  easy  subsistence.  UniviTsal  sufifrage  docs 
therefore,  in  point  of  fact,  i.vest  the  poor  With  the  government 
of  society. 

The  disastrous  inllucncc  which  ;'opuiir  authority  may  some- 
times exercise  upon  the  finaices  of  .•  State  vas  viry  clearly 
seen  in  some  of  the  democratic  republics  of  a;  '^'quity,  in  which 
the  public  treasure  was  exhausted  in  orde;  'i  relieve  indigent 
citizens,  or  to  supply  the  games  an:!  ♦heatrical  amus.  nents  of 
the  populace.  It  is  true  that  the  rciircsentative  .ty.jlem  was 
then  very  imperfectly  known,  and  t  lat,  at  the  present  time,  the 
influence  of  popular  passion  is  less  felt  in  the  conduct  of  publiu 
affairs;  but  it  may  be  believed  that  the  delegate  will  in  the 
end  conform  to  the  principles  of  his  constituents,  and  favor 
their  propensities  as  much  as  their  interests. 

The  extravagance  of  democracy  is,  however,  less  to  be 
dreaded  in  proportion  as  the  people  acquires  a  share  of  prop- 
erty, because  on  the  one  hand  the  contributions  of  the  rich  are 
then  less  needed,  and,  on  the  other,  it  is  more  difficult  to  lay 
on  taxes  which  do  not  affect  the  interests  of  the  lower  classes. 
On  this  account  universal  suffrage  would  be  less  dangerous  in 
France  than  in  England ,  I--,  cause  in  the  latter  country  the  prop- 
erty on  which  taxes  may  be  levied  is  vested  in  fewer  hands. 
America,  where  the  great  majority  of  the  citizens  possess  some 
fortune,  is  in  a  vSti'l  more  favorable  position  than  France. 

There  are  st'H  further  causes  which  may  increase  the  sum 
of  public  expenditure  in  democratic  countries.  When  the  aris- 
tocracy governs,  the  individuals  who  conduct  the  affairs  of 
State  are  exempted  by  their  own  station  in  society  from  every 


/.i 


2l8 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


'K 


kind  of  privation ;  they  are  contented  with  their  position ;  power 
and  renown  are  the  objects  for  which  they  strive ;  and,  as  they 
are  placed  far  above  the  obscurer  throng  of  citizens,  they  do 
not  always  distinctly  perceive  how  the  well-being  of  the  mass 
of  the  people  ought  to  redound  to  their  own  honor.  They  are 
not  indeed  callous  to  the  sufferings  of  the  poor,  but  they  cannot 
feel  those  miseries  as  acutely  as  if  they  were  themselves  par- 
takers of  them.  Provided  that  the  people  appear  to  submit  to 
its  lot,  the  rulers  are  satisfied,  and  they  demand  nothing  further 
from  the  Government.  An  aristocracy  is  more  intent  upon  the 
means  of  maintaining  its  influence  than  upon  the  means  of  im- 
proving its  condition. 

When,  on  the  contrary,  the  people  is  invested  with  the  su- 
preme authority,  the  perpetual  sense  of  their  own  miseries 
impels  the  rulers  of  society  to  seek  for  perpetual  ameliorations. 
A  thousand  different  objects  are  subjected  to  improvement ;  the 
most  trivial  details  are  sought  out  as  susceptible  of  amendment ; 
and  those  changes  which  are  accompanied  with  considerable 
expense  are  more  especially  advocated,  since  the  object  is  to 
render  the  condition  of  the  poor  more  tolerable,  who  cannot 
pay  for  themselves. 

Moreover,  all  democratic  communities  are  agitated  by  an 
ill-defined  excitement  and  by  a  kind  of  feverish  impatience,  that 
engender  a  multitude  of  innovations,  almost  all  of  which  are 
attended  with  expense. 

In  monarchies  and  aristocracies  the  natural  taste  which  the 
rulers  have  for  power  and  for  renown  is  stimulated  by  the 
promptings  of  ambition,  and  they  are  frequently  incited  by 
these  temptations  to  very  costly  undertakings.  In  democracies, 
where  the  rulers  labor  under  privations,  they  can  only  be  courted 
by  such  means  as  improve  their  well-being,  and  these  improve- 
ments cannot  take  place  without  a  sacrifice  of  money.  When 
a  people  begins  to  reflect  upon  its  situation,  it  discovers  a  multi- 
tude of  wants  to  which  it  had  not  before  been  subject,  and  to 
satisfy  these  exigencies  recourse  must  be  had  to  the  coffers 
of  the  State.  Hence  it  arises  that  the  public  charges  increase 
in  proportion  as  civilization  spreads,  and  that  imposts  are  aug- 
mented as  knowledge  pervades  the  community. 

The  last  cause  which  frequently  renders  a  democratic  gov- 
ernment dearer  than  any  other  is,  that  a  democracy  does  not 
always  succeed  in  moderating  its  expenditure,  because  it  does 


m 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


219 


not  understand  the  art  of  being  economical.  As  the  designs 
which  it  entertains  are  frequently  changed,  and  the  agents  of 
those  designs  are  still  more  frequently  removed,  its  undertak- 
ings are  often  ill  conducted  or  left  unfinished:  in  the  former 
case  the  State  spends  sums  out  of  all  proportion  to  the  end 
which  it  proposes  to  accomplish;  in  the  second,  the  expense 
itself  is  unprofitable.^ 

Tendencies  of  the  American  Democracy  as  Regards  the 
Salaries  of  Public  Officers 

In  democracies  those  who  establish  high  salaries  have  no  chance  of 
profiting  by  them — Tendency  of  the  American  democracy  to  in- 
crease the  salaries  of  subordinate  officers  and  to  lower  those  of  the 
more  important  functionaries — Reason  of  this — Comparative  state- 
ment of  the  salaries  of  public  officers  in  the  United  States  and  in 
France. 

There  is  a  powerful  reason  which  usually  induces  democra- 
cies to  economize  upon  the  salaries  of  public  officers.  As  the 
number  of  citizens  who  dispense  the  remuneration  is  extremely 
large  in  democratic  countries,  so  the  number  of  persons  who 
can  hope  to  be  benefited  by  the  receipt  of  it  is  comparatively 
small.  In  aristocratic  countries,  on  the  contrary,  the  individ- 
uals who  fix  high  salaries  have  almost  always  a  vague  hope  of 
profiting  by  them.  These  appointments  may  be  looked  upon 
as  a  capital  which  they  create  for  their  own  use,  or  at  least  as 
a  resource  for  their  children. 

It  must,  however,  be  allowed  that  a  democratic  State  is  most 
parsimonious  towards  its  principal  agents.  In  America  the 
secondary  officers  are  much  better  paid,  and  the  dignitaries  of 
the  administration  much  worse,  than  they  are  elsewhere. 

These  opposite  effects  result  from  the  same  cause ;  the  people 
fixes  the  salaries  of  the  public  officers  in  both  cases;  and  the 
scale  of  remuneration  is  determined  by  the  consideration  of  its 
own  wants.  It  is  held  to  be  fair  that  the  servants  of  the  public 
should  be  placed  in  the  same  easy  circumstances  as  the  public 
itself ;  s  but  when  the  question  turns  upon  the  salaries  of  the 


f  The  gross  receipts  of  the  Treasury 
of  the  United  States  in  1832  were  about 
$28,000,000;  in  T870  they  had  risen  to 
$411,000,000.  The  gross  expenditure  in 
1832  was  $30,000,000;  in  1870,  $309,000,000. 

g  The  easy  circumstances  in  which 
secondary  functionaries  are  placed  in 
the  United  States  result  also  from  an- 
other cause,  which   is   independent   of 


the  general  tendencies  of  democracy; 
every  kind  of  private  business  is  very 
lucrative,  and  the  State  would  not  be 
served  at  all  if  it  did  not  pay  its  ser- 
vants. The  country  is  in  the  position 
of  a  commercial  undertaking,  which  is 
obliged  to  sustain  an  expensive  compe- 
tition, notwithstanding  its  tastes  tor 
economy. 


1  '■ 


r     1 


^ii .) 


t 


I      l\ 


220 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


M 


great  officers  of  St;»te,  this  rule  fails,  and  chance  alone  can  guide 
the  popular  decision.  The  poor  have  no  adequate  conception 
of  the  wants  which  the  higher  classes  of  society  may  feel.  The 
sum  which  is  scanty  to  the  rich  appears  enormous  to  the  poor 
man  whose  wants  do  not  extend  beyond  the  necessaries  of  life ; 
and  in  his  estimation  the  Governor  of  a  State,  with  his  twelve  or 
fifteen  hundred  dollars  a  year,  is  a  very  fortunate  and  eaviable 
being.A  If  you  undertake  to  convince  him  that  the  representative 
of  a  great  people  ought  to  be  able  to  maintain  some  show  of 
splendor  in  the  eyes  of  foreign  nations,  he  will  perhaps  assent  to 
your  meaning ;  but  when  he  reflects  on  his  own  humble  dwelling, 
and  on  the  hard-earned  produce  of  his  wearisome  toil,  he  remem- 
bers all  that  he  could  do  with  a  sa4ary  which  you  say  is  insuffi- 
cient, and  he  is  startled  or  almost  frightened  at  the  sight  of  such 
uncommon  wealth.  Besides,  the  secondary  public  officer  is  al- 
most on  a  level  with  the  people,  whilst  the  others  are  raised 
above  it.  The  former  may  therefore  excite  his  interest,  but  the 
latter  begins  to  arou.«e  his  envy. 

This  is  very  clearly  seen  in  the  United  States,  where  the 
salaries  seem  to  decrease  as  the  authority  of  those  who  receive 
them  augments.* 

Under  the  rule  of  an  aristocracy  it  frequently  happens,  on 
the  contrary,  that  whilst  the  high  officers  are  receiving  munifi- 
cent salaries,  the  inferior  ones  have  not  more  than  enough  to 
procure  the  necessaries  of  life.  The  reason  of  this  fact  is  easily 
discoverable  from  causes  very  analogous  to  those  to  which  I 


h  'rf^ 


h  The  State  of  Ohio,  which  contains 
a  million  of  inhabitants,  gives  its  Gov- 
ernor a  salary  of  only  $1,200  a  year. 

•  To  render  this  assertion  perfectly 
evident,  it  will  suffice  to  examine  the 
scale  of   salaries  of  the  agents  of  the 

UNITED  STATES 

Treasury  Department 

Messenger    $700 

Clerk  with  lowest  salary 1,000 

Clerk  with  highest  salary 1,600 

Chief  Clerk  2,000 

Secretary  of  State  6,000 

The  President 25,000 

T  hpve  perhaps  done  wrong  in  se- 
lecting France  as  my  standard  of  com- 
parison. In  France  the  democratic 
tendencies  of  the  nation  exercise  an 
ever-increasing  influence  upon  the  Gov- 
ernment, and  the  Chambers  show  a 
disposition  to  raise  the  low  salaries  and 
to  lower  the  nrincipal  ones.  Thu«,  tlic 
Minister  of  Finance,  who  received  160.- 
000  fr.   under  the   Empire,   receives  80,- 


Federal  Government.  I  have  added  the 
salaries  attached  to  the  corresponding 
officers  in  France  under  the  constitu- 
tional monarchy  to  complete  the  com- 
parison. 


MinUtire  des  Finances 

Hussier  1..S00  fr. 

Clerk  with  lowest  salary,  1,000  to  1,800  fr. 
Clerk  with  hip;hest  salary  3,200  to  8,600  fr. 

Secretaire-general   20,000  fr. 

The  Minister 80,000  fr. 

The  King  12,000,000  fr. 

000  fr.  in  18,35:  the  Direcfcnrs-penorrMix 
of  Finance,  who  then  received  so.ooo  fr., 
now  receive  only  20,000  fr.  [This  com- 
parison is  based  on  the  state  of  things 
existinii  in  France  and  the  United 
States  in  1831.  It  has  since  materially 
altered  in  both  countries,  but  not  so 
much  as  to  impugn  the  truth  of  the  au- 
thor's observation.] 


I 


'\    , 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


221 


have  just  alluded.  If  a  democracy  is  unable  to  conceive  the 
pleasures  of  the  rich  or  to  witness  them  without  envy,  an  aris- 
tocracy is  slow  to  understand,  or,  to  speak  more  correctly,  is 
unacquainted  with,  the  privations  of  the  poor.  The  poor  man 
is  not  (if  we  use  the  term  aright)  the  fellow  of  the  rich  one; 
but  he  is  a  being  of  another  species.  An  aristocracy  is  therefore 
apt  to  care  but  little  for  the  fate  of  its  subordinate  agents ;  and 
their  salaries  are  only  raised  when  they  refuse  to  perform  their 
service  for  too  scanty  a  remuneration. 

It  is  the  parsimonious  conduct  of  democracy  towards  its  prin- 
cipal officers  which  has  countenanced  a  supposition  of  far  more 
economical  propensities  than  any  which  it  really  possesses.  It 
is  true  that  it  scarcely  allows  the  means  of  honorable  subsistence 
to  the  individuals  who  conduct  its  affairs ;  but  enormous  sums 
are  lavished  to  meet  the  exigencies  or  to  facilitate  the  enjoy- 
ments of  the  people./  The  money  raised  by  taxation  may  be 
better  employed,  but  it  is  not  saved.  In  general,  democracy 
gives  largely  to  the  community,  and  very  sparingly  to  those  who 
govern  it.  The  reverse  is  the  case  in  aristocratic  countries, 
where  the  money  of  the  State  is  expended  to  the  profit  of  the 
persons  who  are  at  the  head  of  affairs. 


Difficulty  of  Distinguishing  the  Causes  which  Con- 
tribute TO  THE  Economy  of  the  American  Govern- 
ment 

We  are  liable  to  frequent  errors  in  the  research  of  those  facts 
which  exercise  a  serious  influence  upon  the  fate  of  mankind, 
since  nothing  is  more  difficult  than  to  appreciate  their  real  value. 
One  people  is  naturally  inconsistent  and  enthusiastic ;  another 
is  sober  and  calculating;  and  these  characteristics  originate  in 
their  physical  constitution  or  in  remote  causes  with  which  we 
are  unacquainted. 

There  are  nations  which  are  fond  of  parade  and  the  bustle 
of  festivity,  and  which  do  not  regret  the  costly  gaieties  of  an 
hour.    Others,  on  the  contrary,  are  attached  to  more  retiring 


y  See  the  American  budgets  for  the 
cost  of  indigent  citizens  and  gratuitous 
instruction.  In  1831  $250,000  were  spent 
in  the  State  of  New  York  for  the  main- 
tenance of  the  poor,  and  at  least  $i,ooo,- 
000  were  devoted  to  srratuitous  instruc- 
tion.   (William's  "  New  York  Annual 


Register,"  1832,  pp.  205  and  243.)  The 
State  of  New  York  contained  only  i.goo,- 
000  inhabitants  in  the  year  1830,  which  is 
mt  more  than  double  the  amount  of 
population  in  the  Department  du  Nord 
in   France. 


1: 

I?  ^  'i 


■1     (  ; 


I!) 


il 


i<  I 


f    4 


1 

11 

■I'    > 

I   ' 

■ 

. 

t 

; 

\\ 

'1 

L 

222 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


pleasures,  and  seem  almost  ashamed  of  appearing  to  be  pleased. 
In  some  countries  the  highest  value  is  set  upon  the  beauty  of 
public  edifices ;  in  others  the  productions  of  art  are  treated  with 
indifference,  and  everything  which  is  unproductive  is  looked 
down  upon  with  contempt.  In  some  renown,  in  others  money, 
is  the  ruling  passion. 

Independently  of  the  laws,  all  these  causes  concur  to  exer- 
cise a  very  powerful  influence  upon  the  conduct  of  the  finances 
of  the  State.  If  the  Americans  never  spend  the  money  of  the 
people  in  galas,  it  is  not  only  because  the  imposition  of  taxes  is 
under  the  control  of  the  people,  but  because  the  people  takes 
no  delight  in  public  rejoicings.  If  they  repudiate  all  ornament 
from  their  architecture,  and  set  no  store  on  any  but  the  more 
practical  and  homely  advantages,  it  is  not  only  because  they  live 
under  democratic  institutions,  but  because  they  are  a  commer- 
cial nation.  The  habits  of  private  life  are  continued  in  public ; 
and  we  ought  carefully  to  distinguish  that  economy  which  de- 
pends upon  their  institutions  from  that  which  is  the  natural  re- 
sult of  their  manners  and  customs. 


Whether  the  Expenditure  of  the  United  States  can 
be  comp;.red  to  that  of  france 

Two  points  to  be  established  in  order  to  estimate  the  extent  of  the  pub- 
lic charges,  viz.,  the  national  wealth  and  the  rate  of  taxation — The 
weaUh  and  the  charges  of  France  not  accurately  known — Why  the 
wealth  and  charges  of  the  Union  cannot  be  accurately  known — Re- 
searches of  the  author  with  a  view  to  discover  the  amount  of  taxa- 
tion of  Pennsylvania — General  symptoms  which  may  serve  to  in- 
dicate the  amount  of  the  public  charges  in  a  given  nation — Result  of 
this  investigation  for  the  Union. 

Many  attempts  have  recently  been  made  in  France  to  com- 
pare the  public  expenditure  of  that  country  with  the  expendi- 
ture of  the  United  States;  all  these  attempts  have,  however, 
been  unattended  by  success,  and  a  few  words  will  suffice  to 
show  that  they  could  not  have  had  a  satisfactory  result. 

In  order  to  estimate  the  amount  of  the  public  charges  of 
a  people  two  preliminaries  are  indispensable:  it  is  necessary, 
in  the  first  place,  to  know  the  wealth  of  that  people;  and  in 
the  second,  to  learn  what  portion  of  that  wealth  is  devoted  to 
the  expenditure  of  the  State.  To  show  the  amount  of  taxation 
without  showing  the  resources  which  are  destined  to  meet  the 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


223 


demand,  is  to  undertake  a  futile  labor;  for  it  is  not  the  ex- 
penditure, but  the  relation  of  the  expenditure  to  the  revenue, 
which  it  is  desirable  to  know. 

The  same  rate  of  taxation  which  may  easily  be  supported 
by  a  wealthy  contributor  will  reduce  a  poor  one  to  extreme 
misery.  The  wealth  of  nations  is  composed  of  several  distinct 
elements,  of  which  population  is  the  first,  real  property  the  sec- 
ond, and  personal  property  the  third.  The  first  of  these  three 
elements  may  be  discovered  without  difficulty.  Amongst  civil- 
ized nations  it  is  easy  to  obtain  an  accurate  census  of  the  in- 
habitants; but  the  two  others  cannot  be  determined  with  so 
much  facility.  It  is  difficult  to  take  an  exact  account  of  all  the 
lands  in  a  country  which  are  under  cultivation,  with  their  nat- 
ural or  their  acquired  value ;  and  it  is  still  more  impossible  to 
estimate  the  entire  personal  property  which  is  at  the  disposal 
of  a  nation,  and  which  eludes  the  strictest  analysis  by  the  di- 
versity and  the  number  of  shapes  under  which  it  may  occur. 
And,  indeed,  we  find  that  the  most  ancient  civilized  nations  of 
Europe,  including  even  those  in  which  the  administration  is 
most  central,  have  not  succeeded,  as  yet,  in  determining  the 
exact  condition  of  their  wealth. 

In  America  the  attempt  has  never  been  made ;  for  how  would 
such  an  investigation  be  possible  in  a  country  where  society  has 
not  yet  settled  into  habits  of  regularity  and  tranquillity ;  where 
the  national  Government  is  not  assisted  by  a  multitude  of  agents 
whose  exertions  it  can  command  and  direct  to  one  sole  end; 
and  where  statistics  are  not  studied,  because  no  one  is  able  to 
collect  the  necessary  documents,  or  to  find  time  to  peruse  them  ? 
Thus  the  primary  elements  of  the  calculations  which  have  been 
made  in  France  cannot  be  obtained  in  the  Union ;  the  relative 
wealth  of  the  two  countries  is  unknown;  the  property  of  the 
former  is  not  accurately  determined,  and  no  means  exist  of 
computing  that  of  the  latter, 

I  consent,  therefore,  for  the  sake  of  the  discussion,  to  aban- 
don this  necessary  term  of  the  comparison,  and  I  confine  myself 
to  a  computation  of  the  actual  amount  of  taxation,  without  in- 
vestigating the  relation  which  subsists  between  the  taxation  and 
the  revenue.  But  the  reader  will  perceive  that  my  task  has  not 
been  facilitated  by  the  limits  which  I  here  lay  down  for  my  re- 
searches. 

It  cannot  be   doubted  that  the  central  administration  of 


Hi 


!       S\ 


I     I 


M 


'U 


224 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


France,  assisted  by  all  the  public  officers  who  are  at  its  disposal, 
might  determine  with  exactitude  the  amount  of  the  direct  and 
indirect  taxes  levied  upon  the  citizens.  But  this  investigation, 
which  no  private  individual  can  undertake,  has  not  hitherto 
been  completed  by  the  French  Government,  or,  at  least,  its  re- 
sults have  not  been  made  public.  We  are  acquainted  with  the 
sum  total  of  the  charges  of  the  State ;  we  know  the  amount  of 
the  departmental  expenditure;  but  the  expenses  of  the  com- 
munal divisions  have  not  been  computed,  and  the  amount  of 
the  public  expenses  of  France  is  consequently  unknown. 

If  we  now  turn  to  America,  we  shall  perceive  that  the  diffi- 
culties are  multiplied  and  enhanced.  The  Union  publishes  an 
exact  return  of  the  amount  of  its  expenditure ;  the  budgets  of 
the  four  and  twenty  States  furnish  similar  returns  of  their 
revenues ;  but  the  expenses  incident  to  the  aflfairs  of  the  coun- 
ties and  the  townships  are  unknown.^ 

The  authority  of  the  Federal  government  cannot  oblige  the 
provincial  governments  to  throw  any  light  upon  this  point ;  and 
even  if  these  governments  were  inclined  to  afford  their  simul- 
taneous co-operation,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  they  possess 
the  means  of  procuring  a  satisfactory  answer.  Independently 
of  the  natural  difficulties  of  the  task,  the  political  organization 
of  the  country  would  act  as  a  hindrance  to  the  success  of  their 
efforts.  The  county  and  town  magistrates  are  not  appointed 
by  the  authorities  of  the  State,  and  they  are  not  subjected  to 
their  control.  It  is  therefore  v-ry  allowable  to  suppose  that, 
if  the  State  was  desirous  of  obta.  ling  the  returns  which  we  re- 
quire, its  design  would  be  counteracted  by  the  neglect  of  those 


k  The  Americans,  as  we  have  seen, 
have  {our  separate  budgets,  the  Union, 
the  States,  the  Counties,  and  the  Town- 
ships having  each  severally  their  own. 
DurinK  my  stay  in  America  I  made 
every  endeavor  to  discover  'le  amount 
of  the  public  expenditure  iu  the  town- 
ships and  counties  of  the  principal 
States  of  the  Union,  and  I  readily  ob- 
tained the  budget  of  the  larger  town- 
ships, but  I  found  it  quite  impossible 
to  procure  that  of  the  smaller  ones.  I 
possess,  however,  some  documents  re- 
lating to  county  expenses,  which,  al- 
though incomplete,  are  still  curious.  I 
have  to  thank  Mr.  Richards,  Mayor  of 
Philadelphia,  for  the  budgets  of  thir- 
teen of  the  counties  of  Pennsylvania, 
viz.,  Lebanon,  Centre,  Franklin,  Fay- 
ette, Montgomery,  Luzerne,  Dauphin, 
Tiutler,  Alleghany,  Columbia,  North- 
ampton, Northumberland,  and  Philadel- 
phia, for  the  year  1830.  Their  popula- 
tion at  that  time  consisted  of  495,207 


inhabitants.  On  looking  at  the  map  of 
Pennsylvania,  it  will  be  seen  that  these 
thirteen  counties  are  scattered  in  every 
direction,  and  so  generally  aflfected  by 
the  causes  which  usually  influence  the 
condition  of  a  country,  that  they  may 
easily  be  supposed  to  furnish  a  correct 
average  of  the  financial  state  of  the 
counties  of  Pennsylvania  in  general; 
and  thus,  upon  reckoning  that  the  ;x- 
penses  of  these  counties  amounted  in 
the  year  18.30  to  about  $.161,650,  or  nearly 
75  cents  for  each  inhabitant,  and  calcu- 
lating that  cnch  of  them  contributed  in 
the  same  vcar  about  $2.55  towards  the 
Union,  and  about  75  cents  to  the  State  of 
Pennsylvania,  it  appears  that  they  each 
contributed  as  their  share  of  all  the  pub- 
lic expenses  (except  those  of  the  town- 
ships) the  sum  ot  $4.05.  This  calcula- 
tion is  doubly  incomplete,  as  it  applies 
only  to  a  single  year  and  to  one  part  of 
the  public  charges;  but  it  has  at  least 
the  merit  of  not  being  conjectural, 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


22$ 


subordinate  officers  whom  it  would  be  obliged  to  employ.'  It 
is,  in  point  of  fact,  useless  to  inquire  what  the  Americans  might 
do  to  forward  this  inquiry,  since  it  is  certain  that  they  have 
hitherto  done  nothing  at  all.  There  does  not  exist  a  single  indi- 
vidual at  the  present  day,  in  America  or  in  Europe,  who  can 
inform  us  what  each  citizen  of  the  Union  annually  contributes 
to  the  public  charges  of  the  nation.w 

Hence  we  must  conclude  that  it  is  no  less  difficult  to  compare 
the  social  expenditure  than  it  is  to  estimate  the  relative  wealth 
of  France  and  America.  I  will  even  add  that  it  would  be 
dangerous  to  attempt  this  comparison ;  for  when  statistics  are 
not  based  upon  computations  which  are  strictly  accurate,  they 


I  Those  who  have  attempted  to  draw 
a  comparison  between  the  expenses  of 
France  and  America  have  at  once  per- 
ceived that  no  such  comparison  could 
be  drawn  between  the  total  expenditure 
of  the  two  countries;  i)ut  they  have  en- 
deavored to  contrast  detached  portions 
of  this  expenditure.  It  may  readily  be 
shown  that  this  second  system  is  not 
at  all  less  defective  than  the  first.  If  I 
attempt  to  compare  the  French  budget 
with  the  budget  of  the  Union,  it  inunit 
be  remembered  that  the  latter  embraces 
much  fewer  objects  than  the  central 
Government  of  the  former  country,  and 
that  the  expenditure  must  conscciuently 
be  much  smaller.  If  I  contrast  the  bud- 
gets of  the  Departments  with  those 
of  the  States  which  constitute  the 
tJnion,  it  must  be  observed  that,  as  the 
power  and  control  exercised  by  the 
States  is  much  greater  than  that  which 
is  exercised  by  the  Departments,  their 
expenditure  is  also  more  considerable. 
As  for  the  budgets  of  the  counties, 
nothing  of  the  kind  occurs  in  the 
French  system  of  finances;  and  it  is, 
again,  doubtful  whi  ther  the  correspond- 
ing expenses  shouJd  be  referred  to  the 
budget  of  the  State  or  to  those  of  the 
municipal  divisions.  Municipal  expenses 
exist  in  both  countries,  but  they  are 
not  always  analogous.  In  America  the 
townships  discharge  a  variety  of  offices 
which  are  reserved  in  France  to  the  De- 
partments or  to  the  State.  It  may,  more- 
over, he  asked  what  is  to  be  understood 
bv  the  municipal  expenses  of  America. 
TJie  organization  of  the  municipal 
bodies  or  townships  differs  in  the  sev- 
eral Staxc=.  Are  we  to  be  guided  by 
what  occurs  in  New  Enjfland  or  in 
Gcoriiia,  in  Pennsylvania  or  in  the  State 
of  Illinois?  A  kind  of  analogy  may  very 
readily  be  perceived  between  certain 
budgets  in  the  two  countries;  but  as 
the  elements  of  which  they  are  com- 
posed always  differ  more  or  less,  no  fair 
comparison  can  he  instituted  between 
them.  [The  same  difficulty  exists,  per- 
haps to  a  greater  degree  at  the  present 
time,  when  the  taxation  of  America  has 
largely   increased.— 1874.] 

m  Even  if  we  knew  the  exact  pecuniary 
contributions  of  every  French  andAmer- 

VOL.    I.— IS 


ican  citizen  to  the  coflFers  of  the  State, 
we  should  only  come  at  a  portion  of  the 
truth.  Governments  do  not  only  demand 
supplies  of  money,  but  they  call  fur 
personal  services,  which  may  be  looked 
upon  as  equivalent  to  a  given  sum. 
When  a  State  raises  an  army,  besides 
the  pay  of  the  troops,  which  is  furnished 
by  the  entire  nation,  each  soldier  must 
give  up  his  time,  the  value  of  which 
depends  on  the  use  he  might  make  of 
it  if  he  were  not  in  the  service.  The 
same  remark  applies  to  the  militia;  the 
citizen  who  is  in  thf  militia  devotes  a 
certain  portion  of  valuable  time  to  the 
maintenance  of  the  public  peace,  and 
he  does  in  reality  surrender  to  the  State 
those  earnings  which  he  is  prevented 
from  gaining.  Many  other  instances 
might  be  cited  in  addition  to  these.  The 
governments  of  France  and  of  America 
both  levy  taxes  of  this  kind,  which 
weigh  upon  the  citizens;  but  who  can 
estimate  with  accuracy  their  relative 
amount  in  the  two  countries? 

This,  however,  is  not  the  last  of  the 
difficulties  which  prevent  us  from  com- 
paring the  expenditure  of  the  Union 
with  that  of  France.  The  French  Gov- 
ernment contracts  certain  obligations 
which  do  not  exist  in  America,  and 
vice  versa.  The  French  Government 
pays  the  clergy;  in  America  the  vol- 
untary principle  prevails.  In  America 
there  is  a  legal  provision  for  the  poor; 
in  France  they  are  abandoned  to  the 
charity  of  the  public.  The  French  pub- 
lic officers  are  paid  by  a  fixed  salary; 
in  America  they  are  allowed  certain  per- 
quisites. In  France  contributions  in 
kind  take  place  on  very  few  roads;  in 
America  upon  almost  all  the  thorough- 
fares: in  the  former  country  the  roads 
are  free  to  all  travellers;  in  the  latter 
turnpikes  abound.  All  these  differences 
in  the  manner  in  which  contributions 
are  levied  in  the  two  countries  enhance 
the  difficulty  of  comparing  their  expen- 
diture; for  there  are  certain  expenses 
which  the  citizens  would  not  be  subject 
to,  or  which  would  at  any  rate  be  much 
less  considerable,  if  the  St.ite  did  not 
take  upon  itself  to  act  in  the  name  of 
the  public. 


( 


226 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


mislead  instead  of  guiding  aright.  The  mind  is  easily  imposed 
upon  by  the  false  affectation  of  exactness,  which  prevails  even 
in  the  misstatements  of  science,  and  it  adopts  with  confidence 
errors  which  are  dressed  in  the  forms  of  mathematical  truth. 

We  abandon,  therefore,  our  numerical  investigation,  with 
the  hope  of  meeting  with  data  of  another  kind.  In  the  absence 
of  positive  documents,  we  may  form  an  opinion  as  to  the  pro- 
portion which  the  taxation  of  a  people  bears  to  its  real  pros- 
perity, by  observing  whether  its  external  appearance  is  flourish- 
ing; whether,  after  having  discharged  the  calls  of  the  State, 
the  poor  man  retains  the  means  of  subsistence,  and  the  rich  the 
means  of  enjoyment ;  and  whether  both  classes  are  contented  i 
with  their  position,  seeking,  however,  to  ameliorate  it  by  per- 
petual exertions,  so  that  industry  is  never  in  want  of  capital, 
nor  capital  unemployed  by  industry.  The  observer  who  draws 
his  inferences  from  these  signs  will,  undoubtedly,  be  led  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  American  of  the  United  States  contributes 
a  much  smaller  portion  of  his  income  to  the  State  than  the  citi- 
zen of  France.    Nor,  indeed,  can  the  result  be  otherwise. 

A  portion  of  the  French  debt  is  the  consequence  of  two  suc- 
cessive invasions;  and  the  Union  has  no  similar  calamity  to 
fear.  A  nation  placed  upon  the  continent  of  Europe  is  obliged 
to  maintain  a  large  standing  army ;  the  isolated  position  of  the 
Union  enables  it  to  have  only  6,000  soldiers.  The  French  have 
a  fleet  of  300  sail ;  the  Americans  have  52  vessels."  How,  then, 
can  the  inhabitants  of  the  Union  be  called  upon  to  contribute 
as  largely  as  the  inhabitants  of  France?  No  parallel  can  be 
drawn  between  the  finances  of  two  countries  so  differently  sit- 
uated. 

It  is  by  examining  what  actually  takes  place  in  the  Union, 
and  not  by  comparing  the  Union  with  France,  that  we  may  dis- 
cover whether  the  American  Government  is  really  economical. 
On  casting  my  eyes  over  the  different  republics  which  form  the 
confederation,  I  perceive  that  their  Governments  lack  perse- 
verance in  their  undertakings,  and  that  they  exercise  no  steady 
control  over  the  men  whom  they  employ.  Whence  I  naturally 
infer  that  they  must  often  spend  the  money  of  the  people  to  no 
purpose,  or  consume  more  of  it  than  is  really  necessary  to  their 

Civil   War,   amounted   to  $2,480,672,437; 
that  of  France  was  more  than  doubled 


n  See  the  details  in  the  Budget  of  the 
French    Minister  of  Marine;    and   for 
America,  the  National  Calendar  of  i8m. 
"     —         ■       public    debt  of  the 


p.   228. 
United 


the 
tates  in 


fBut 
Si 


1870,  caused  by  the 


by  the  extravagance  of  the  Second  Em- 
pire and  by  the  war  of  1870.] 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


2:7 


undertakings.  Great  efforts  are  made,  in  accordance  with  the 
democratic  origin  of  society,  to  satisfy  the  exigencies  of  the 
lower  orders,  to  open  the  career  of  power  to  th-^tr  endeavors, 
and  to  diffuse  knowledge  and  comfort  amongst  them.  The 
poor  are  maintained,  immense  sums  are  annually  devoted  to 
public  instruction,  all  services  whatsoever  are  remunerated,  and 
the  most  subordinate  agents  are  liberally  paid.  If  this  kind  of 
government  appears  to  me  to  be  useful  and  rational,  I  am  never- 
theless constrained  to  admit  that  it  is  expensive. 

Wherever  the  poor  direct  public  affairs  and  dispose  of  the 
national  resources,  it  appears  certain  that,  as  they  profit  by  the 
expenditure  of  the  State,  they  are  apt  to  augment  that  expendi- 
ture. 

I  conclude,  therefore,  without  having  recourse  to  inaccurate 
computations,  and  without  hazarding  a  comparison  which  might 
prove  incorrect,  that  the  democratic  government  of  the  Ameri- 
cans is  not  a  cheap  government,  as  is  sometimes  asserted ;  and 
I  have  no  hesitation  in  predicting  that,  if  the  people  of  the 
United  States  is  ever  involved  in  serious  difficulties,  its  taxation 
will  speedily  be  increased  to  the  rate  of  that  which  prevails  in 
the  greater  part  of  the  aristocracies  and  the  monarchies  of 
Europe.o 


■ 


Corruption  and  Vices  of  the  Rulers  in  a  Democracy,  and 
Consequent  Effects  upon  Public  Morality 

In  aristocracies  rulers  sometimes  endeavor  to  corrupt  the  people — In 
democracies  rulers  frequently  show  themselves  to  be  corrupt — In 
the  former  their  vices  are  directly  prejudicial  to  the  morality  of  the 
people — In  the  latter  their  indirect  influence  is  still  more  pernicious. 

A  distinction  must  be  made,  when  the  aristocratic  and  the 
democratic  principles  mutually  inveigh  against  each  other,  as 
tending  to  facilitate  corruption.  In  aristocratic  governments 
the  individuals  who  are  placed  at  the  head  of  affairs  are  rich 
men,  who  are  solely  desirous  of  power.  In  democracies  states- 
men are  poor,  and  they  have  their  fortunes  to  make.  The  con- 
sequence is  that  in  aristocratic  States  the  rulers  are  rarely  ac- 
cessible to  corruption,  and  have  very  little  craving  for  money ; 
whilst  the  reverse  is  the  case  in  democratic  nations. 

But  in  aristocracies,  as  those  who  are  desirous  of  arriving 

0  [That   is   precisely  what  has  since  occurred.] 


I 


;',fl 


1% 


328 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


at  the  head  of  aflFairs  are  possessed  of  considerable  wealth,  and 
as  the  number  of  persons  by  whose  assistance  they  may  rise  is 
comparatively  small,  the  government  is,  if  I  may  use  the  ex- 
pression, put  up  to  a  sort  of  auction.  In  democracies,  on  the 
contrary,  those  who  are  covetous  of  power  are  very  seldom 
wealthy,  and  the  number  of  citizens  who  confer  that  power  is 
extremely  great.  Perhaps  in  democracies  the  number  of  men 
who  might  be  bought  is  by  no  means  smaller,  but  buyers  are 
rarely  to  be  met  with;  and,  besides,  it  would  be  necessary  to 
buy  so  many  persons  at  once  that  the  attempt  is  rendered  nuga- 
tory. 

Many  of  the  men  who  have  been  in  the  administration  in 
France  during  the  last  forty  years  have  been  accused  of  making 
their  fortunes  at  the  expense  of  the  State  or  of  its  allies;  a 
reproach  which  was  rai  ely  addressed  to  the  public  characters  of 
the  ancient  monarchy.  But  in  France  the  practice  of  bribing 
electors  is  almost  unkn)wn,  whilst  it  is  notoriously  and  publicly 
carried  on  in  England.  In  the  United  States  I  never  heard  a 
man  accused  of  spending  his  wealth  in  corrupting  the  populace ; 
but  I  have  often  heard  the  probity  of  public  officers  questioned ; 
still  more  frequently  have  I  heard  their  success  attributed  to 
low  intrigues  and  immoral  practices. 

If,  then,  the  men  who  conduct  the  government  of  an  aris- 
tocracy sometimes  endeavor  to  corrupt  the  people,  the  heads 
of  a  democracy  are  themselves  corrupt.  In  the  former  case  the 
morality  of  the  people  is  directly  assailed ;  in  the  latter  an  in- 
direct influence  is  exercised  upon  the  people  which  is  still  more 
to  be  dreaded. 

As  the  rulers  of  democratic  nations  are  almost  always  exposed 
to  the  suspicion  of  dishonorable  conduct,  they  in  some  measure 
lend  the  authority  of  the  Government  to  the  base  practices  of 
which  they  are  accused.  They  thus  afford  an  example  which 
must  prove  discouraging  to  the  struggles  of  virtuous  indepen- 
dence, and  must  foster  the  secret  calculations  of  a  vicious  ambi- 
tion. If  it  be  asserted  that  evil  passions  are  displayed  in  all 
ranks  of  society,  that  they  ascend  the  throne  by  hereditary  right, 
and  that  despicable  characters  are  to  be  met  with  at  the  head 
of  aristocratic  nations  as  well  as  in  the  sphere  of  a  democracy, 
this  objection  has  but  little  weight  in  my  estimation.  The 
corruption  of  men  who  have  casually  risen  to  power  has  a  coarse 
and  vulgar  infection  in  it  which  renders  it  contagious  to  the 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


••9 


multitude.  On  the  contrary,  there  is  a  kind  of  aristocratic 
refinement  and  an  air  of  grandeur  in  the  depravity  of  the  great, 
which  frequently  prevent  it  from  spreading  abroad. 

The  people  can  never  penetrate  into  the  perplexing  labyrinth 
of  court  intrigue,  and  it  will  always  have  difficulty  in  detecting 
the  turpitude  which  lurks  under  elegant  manners,  refined  tastes, 
and  graceful  language.  But  to  pillage  the  public  purse,  and 
to  vend  the  favors  of  the  State,  are  arts  which  the  meanest 
villain  may  comprehend,  and  hope  to  practice  in  his  turn. 

In  reality  it  is  far  less  prejudicial  to  witness  the  immorality 
of  the  great  than  to  witness  that  immorality  which  leads  to 
greatness.  In  a  denocracy  private  citizens  see  a  man  of  their 
own  rank  in  life,  who  rises  from  that  obscure  position,  and  who 
becomes  possessed  of  riches  and  of  power  in  a  few  years ;  the 
spectacle  excites  their  surprise  and  their  envy,  and  they  are  led 
to  inquire  how  the  person  who  was  yesterday  their  equal  is 
to-day  their  ruler.  To  attribute  his  rise  to  his  talents  or  his 
virtues  is  unpleasant ;  for  it  is  tacitly  to  acknowledge  that  they 
are  themselves  less  virtuous  and  less  talented  than  he  was.  They 
are  therefore  led  (and  not  unfrequently  their  conjecture  is  a 
correct  one)  to  impute  his  success  mainly  to  some  one  of  his 
defects ;  and  an  odious  mixture  is  thus  formed  of  the  ideas  of 
turpitude  and  power,  unworthiness  and  success,  utility  and  dis- 
honor. 

Efforts  of  Which  a  Democracy  is  Capable 

The  Union  has  only  had  one  struggle  hitherto  for  its  existence — En- 
thusiasm at  the  commencement  of  the  war — Indiflference  towards  its 
close — Difficulty  of  establishing  military  conscription  or  impress- 
ment of  seamen  in  America — Why  a  democratic  people  is  less 
capable  of  sustained  efTort  than  another. 

I  here  warn  the  reader  that  I  speak  of  a  government  which 
implicitly  follows  ihe  real  desires  of  a  people,  and  not  of  a  gov- 
ernment which  simply  commands  in  its  name.  Nothing  is  so 
irresistible  as  a  tyrannical  power  commanding  in  the  name  of 
the  people,  because,  whilst  it  exercises  that  moral  influence 
which  belongs  to  the  decision  of  the  majority,  it  acts  at  the 
same  time  with  the  promptitude  and  the  tenacity  of  a  single 
man. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  what  degree  of  exertion  a  democratic 
government  may  be  capable  of  making  a  crisis  in  the  history 


i 


I 


330 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


'Pt*   IJ 


5f 


of  the  nation.  But  no  great  dcmoc. .m.v*  reiiublic  has  hitherto 
existed  in  the  world.  To  style  the  oltj,  .  liy  which  ruled  over 
France  in  1793  by  that  name  would  be  to  offer  an  insult  to  the 
republican  form  of  government.  The  United  States  afford  the 
first  example  of  the  kind. 

The  American  Union  has  now  subsisted  for  half  a  century, 
in  the  course  of  which  time  its  existence  has  only  once  been 
attacked,  namely,  during  the  War  of  Independence.  At  the 
commencement  of  that  long  war,  various  occurrences  took  place 
which  betokened  an  extraordinary  zeal  for  the  service  of  the 
country./*  But  as  the  contest  was  prolonged,  symptoms  of 
private  egotism  began  to  show  themselves.  No  money  was 
poured  into  the  public  treasury;  few  recruits  could  be  raised 
to  join  the  army ;  the  people  wished  to  acquire  independence, 
but  was  very  ill-disposed  to  undergo  the  privatio*-"  by  which 
alone  it  could  be  obtained.  "  Tax  laws,"  says  Hamilton  in  the 
"Federalist"  (No.  12),  "have  in  vain  been  multiplied;  new 
methods  to  enforce  the  collection  have  in  vain  been  tried ;  the 
public  expectation  has  been  uniformly  disappointed  and  the 
treasuries  of  the  States  have  remained  empty.  The  popular 
system  of  administration  inherent  in  the  nature  of  popular  gov- 
ernment, coinciding  with  the  real  scarcity  of  money  incident 
to  a  languid  and  mutilated  state  of  trade,  has  hitherto  defeated 
every  experiment  for  extensive  collections,  and  has  at  length 
taught  the  different  legislatures  the  folly  of  attempting  them." 

The  United  States  have  not  had  any  serious  war  to  carry 
on  ever  since  that  period.  In  order,  therefore,  to  appreciate 
the  sacrifices  which  democratic  nations  may  impose  upon 
themselves,  we  must  wait  until  the  American  people  is  obliged 
to  put  half  its  entire  income  at  the  disposal  of  the  Government, 
as  was  done  by  the  English  ;  or  until  it  sends  forth  a  twentieth 
part  of  its  population  to  the  field  of  battle,  as  was  done  by 
France.9 

In  America  the  use  of  conscription  is  unknown,  and  men 
are  induced  to  enlist  by  bounties.  The  notions  and  habits  of 
the  people  of  the  United  States  are  so  opposed  to  compulsory 


p  One  of  the  most  singular  of  these 
occurrences  was  the  resolution  which 
the  Americans  took  of  temporarily 
abandoning  the  use  of  tea.  Those  who 
know  that  men  usually  cling  more  to 
their  habits  than  to  their  life  will  doubt- 
less admire*  this  great  though  obscure 
sacrifice  which  was  made  by  a  whole 
people. 


g  [The  Civil  War  showed  that  when 
the  necessity  arose  the  American  peo- 
ple, both  in  the  North  and  in  the  South, 
are  capable  of  makinf?  the  most  enor- 
mous sacrifices,  both  in  money  and  in 
men.] 


DKMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


«3« 


enlistment  that  I  do  not  imagine  it  can  ever  be  sanctioned  by 
the  laws.  What  is  termed  the  conscription  in  France  is  as- 
suredly the  heaviest  tax  upon  the  population  of  that  country ; 
yet  how  could  a  great  continental  war  be  carried  on  without  it  ? 
The  Americans  have  not  adopted  the  British  impressment  of 
seamen,  and  they  have  nothing  which  corresponds  to  the 
French  system  of  maritime  conscription ;  the  navy,  as  well  as 
the  merchant  service,  is  supplied  by  voluntary  service.  But 
it  is  not  easy  to  conceive  how  a  people  can  sustain  a  great  mari- 
time war  without  having  recourse  to  one  or  the  other  of  these 
two  systems.  Ituleed,  the  Union,  which  has  fought  with  some 
honor  upon  the  seas,  has  never  possessed  a  very  numerous  tlcct, 
and  the  equipment  of  the  small  number  of  American  vessels 
has  always  been  excessively  expensive. 

I  have  heard  American  statesmen  confess  that  the  Union 
will  have  great  difficulty  in  maintaining  its  rank  on  the  seas 
without  adopting  the  system  of  impressment  or  of  maritime 
conscription ;  but  the  difficulty  is  to  induce  the  people,  which 
exercises  the  supreme  authority,  to  submit  to  impressment  or 
any  compulsory  system. 

It  is  incontestable  that  in  times  of  danger  a  free  people  dis- 
plays far  more  energy  than  one  which  is  not  so.  But  I  in.cline 
to  believe  that  this  is  more  especially  the  case  in  those  free 
nations  in  which  the  democratic  element  preponderates.  De- 
mocracy appears  to  me  to  be  much  better  adapted  for  the  peace- 
ful conduct  of  society,  or  for  an  occasional  effort  of  remarkable 
vigor,  than  for  the  hardy  and  prolonged  endurance  of  the 
storms  which  beset  the  political  existence  of  nations.  The  rea- 
son is  very  evident;  it  is  enthusiasm  which  prompts  men  to 
expose  themselves  to  dangers  and  privations,  but  they  will  not 
support  them  long  without  reflection.  There  is  more  calcula- 
tion, even  in  the  impulses  of  bravery,  than  is  generally  attrib- 
uted to  them ;  and  although  the  first  efforts  are  suggested  bv 
passion,  perseverance  is  maintained  by  a  distinct  regard  of  the 
purpose  in  view.  A  portion  of  what  we  value  is  exposed,  in 
order  to  save  the  remainder. 

But  it  is  this  distinct  perception  of  the  future,  founded  upon 
a  sound  judgment  and  an  enlightened  experience,  which  is  most 
frequently  wanting  in  democracies.  The  populace  is  more  apt 
to  feel  than  to  reason ;  and  if  its  present  sufferings,  ire  great, 
it  is  to  be  feared  that  the  still  greater  sufferings  attendant  upon 
defeat  will  be  forgotten. 


(\ 


•i 


I, 


v. 


232 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


Another  cause  tends  to  render  the  efforts  of  a  democratic 
government  less  persevering  than  those  of  an  aristocracy.  Not 
only  are  the  lowei  classes  less  awakened  than  the  higher  orders 
to  the  good  or  evil  chances  of  the  future,  but  they  are  liable 
to  suffer  far  mere  acutely  from  present  privations.  The  noble 
exposes  his  life,  indeed,  but  the  chance  of  glory  is  equal  to  the 
chance  of  harm.  If  he  sacrifices  a  large  portion  of  his  income 
to  the  State,  he  deprives  himself  for  a  time  of  the  pleasures  of 
affluence;  but  to  the  poor  man  death  is  embeUished  by  no 
pomp  or  renown,  and  the  imposts  which  are  irksome  to  the  rich 
are  fatal  to  him. 

This  relative  impotence  of  democratic  republics  is,  perhaps, 
the  greatest  obstacle  to  the  foundation  of  a  republic  of  this  kind 
in  Europe.  In  order  that  such  a  State  should  subsist  in  one 
country  of  the  Old  World,  it  would  be  necessary  that  similar 
institutions  should  be  introduced  into  all  the  other  nations. 

I  am  of  opinion  that  a  democratic  government  tends  in  the 
end  to  increase  the  real  strength  of  society ;  but  it  can  never 
combine,  upon  a  single  point  and  at  a  given  time,  so  much 
power  as  an  aristocracy  or  a  monarchy.  If  a  democratic  coun- 
try remained  during  a  whole  century  subject  to  a  republican 
government,  it  would  probably  at  the  end  of  that  period  be 
more  populous  and  more  prosperous  than  the  neighboring  des- 
potic States.  But  it  would  have  incurred  the  risk  of  being  con- 
quered much  oftener  than  they  would  in  that  lapse  of  years. 


lit,    I 
I 
I,        .: 


Self-Control  of  the  American  Democracy 

The  Ameiiran  people  acquiesces  slowly,  or  frequently  does  not  ac- 
quiesce, in  what  is  beneficial  to  its  interests — The  faults  of  the 
American  democracy  are  for  the  most  part  reparable. 

The  difficulty  which  a  democracy  has  in  conquering  the  pas- 
sions and  in  subduing  the  exigencies  of  the  moment,  with  a 
view  to  the  future,  is  conspicuous  in  the  most  trivial  occurrences 
of  the  United  States.  The  people,  which  is  suriounded  by  flat- 
terers, has  great  diflficulty  in  surmounting  its  inclinations,  and 
whenever  it  is  solicited  to  undergo  a  privation  or  any  kind  of 
inconvenience,  even  to  attain  an  end  which  is  sanctioned  by 
its  own  rational  convicUon,  it  almost  always  refuses  to  comply 
at  first.  The  deference  of  the  Americans  to  the  laws  has  been 
very  justly  applauded ;   but  it  must  be  added  that  in  America 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


«33 


the  legislation  is  made  by  the  people  and  for  the  people.  Con- 
sequently, in  the  United  States  the  law  favors  those  classes 
which  are  most  interested  in  evading  it  elsewhere.  It  may  there- 
fore be  supposed  that  an  offensive  law,  which  should  not  be 
acknowledged  to  be  one  of  immediate  utility,  would  either  not 
be  enacted  or  would  not  be  obeyed. 

In  America  there  is  no  law  against  fraudulent  bankruptcies ; 
not  because  they  are  few,  but  because  there  are  a  great  number 
of  bankruptcies.  The  dread  of  being  prosecuted  as  a  bankrupt 
acts  with  more  intensity  upon  the  mind  of  the  majority  of  the 
people  than  the  fear  of  being  involved  in  losses  or  ruin  by  the 
failure  of  other  parties,  and  a  sort  of  guilty  tolerance  is  extended 
by  the  public  conscience  to  an  offence  which  everyone  con- 
demns in  his  individual  capacity.  In  the  new  States  of  the 
Southwest  the  citizens  generally  take  justice  into  their  own 
hands,  and  murders  are  of  very  frequent  occurrence.  This  arises 
from  the  rude  manners  and  the  ignorance  of  the  inhabitants 
of  those  deserts,  who  do  not  perceive  the  utility  of  investing 
the  law  with  adequate  force,  and  who  prefer  duels  to  prosecu- 
tions. 

Someone  observed  to  me  one  day,  in  Philadelphia,  that  al- 
most all  crimes  in  America  are  caused  by  the  abuse  of  intoxi- 
cating liquors,  which  the  lower  classes  can  procure  in  great 
abundance,  from  their  excessive  cheapness.  "  How  comes  it," 
said  I,  "  that  you  do  not  put  a  duty  upon  brandy?  "  "  Our 
legislators,"  rejoined  my  informant,  "  have  frequently  thought 
of  this  expedient;  but  the  task  of  putting  it  in  operation  is 
a  difficult  one ;  a  revolt  might  be  apprehended,  and  the  mem- 
bers who  should  vote  for  a  law  of  this  kind  would  be  sure  of 
losing  their  seats."  "  Whence  I  am  to  infer,"  replied  I,  "  that 
the  drinking  population  constitutes  the  majority  in  your  coun- 
try, and  that  temperance  is  somewhat  unpopular." 

When  these  things  are  pointed  out  to  the  American  states- 
men, they  content  themselves  with  assuring  you  that  time  will 
operate  the  necessary  change,  and  that  the  experience  of  evil 
will  teach  the  people  its  true  interests.  This  is  frequently  true, 
although  a  democracy  is  more  liable  to  error  than  a  monarch 
or  a  body  of  nobles ;  the  chances  of  its  regaining  the  right  path 
when  once  it  has  acknowledged  its  mistake,  are  greater  also ; 
because  it  is  rarely  embarrassed  by  internal  interests,  which 
conflict  with  those  of  the  majority,  and  resist  the  authority  of 


Ml 

hi 


y ! 


'!' 


M 


i" 


i 


n 


ifi 


t  i 

■■  ((  i 
-■    I 

( 


234 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


reason.  But  a  democracy  can  only  obtain  truth  as  the  result 
of  experience,  and  many  nations  may  forfeit  their  existence 
whilst  they  are  awaiting  the  consequences  of  their  errors. 

The  great  privilege  of  the  Americans  does  not  simply  con- 
sist in  their  being  more  enlightened  than  other  nations,  but  in 
their  being  able  to  repair  the  faults  they  may  commit.  To 
which  it  must  be  added,  that  a  democracy  cannot  derive  sub- 
stantial benefit  from  past  experience,  unless  it  be  arrived  at 
a  certain  pitch  of  knowledge  and  civilization.  There  are  tribes 
and  peoples  whose  education  has  been  so  vicious,  and  whos«_ 
character  presents  so  strange  a  mixture  of  passion,  of  igno- 
rance, and  of  erroneous  notions  upon  all  subjects,  that  they 
are  unable  to  discern  the  causes  of  their  own  wretchedness,  and 
they  fall  a  sacrifice  to  ills  with  which  they  are  unacquainted. 

I  have  crossed  vast  tracts  of  country  that  were  formerly  in- 
habited by  powerful  Indian  nations  which  are  now  extinct; 
I  have  myself  passed  some  time  in  the  midst  of  mutilated 
tribes,  which  witness  the  daily  decline  of  their  numerical 
strength  and  of  the  glory  of  their  independence ;  and  I  have 
heard  these  Indians  themselv^'  anticipate  the  impending  doom 
of  their  race.  Every  European  can  perceive  means  which  would 
rescue  these  unfortunate  beings  from  inevitable  destruction. 
They  alone  are  insensible  to  the  expedient ;  they  feel  the  woe 
which  year  after  year  heaps  upon  their  heads,  but  they  will 
perish  to  a  man  without  accepting  the  remedy.  It  would  be 
necessary  to  employ  force  to  induce  them  to  submit  to  the  pro- 
tection and  the  constraint  of  civilization. 

The  incessant  revolutions  which  have  convulsed  the  South 
American  provinces  for  the  last  quarter  of  a  century  have  fre- 
quently been  adverted  to  with  astonishment,  and  expectations 
have  been  expressed  that  those  nations  would  speedily  return 
to  their  natural  state.  But  can  it  be  affirmed  that  the  turmoil 
of  revolution  is  not  actually  the  most  natural  state  of  the  South 
American  Spaniards  at  the  present  time  ?  In  that  country  so- 
ciety is  plunged  into  difficulties  from  which  all  its  efforts  are 
insufficient  to  rescue  it.  The  inhabitants  of  that  fair  portion 
of  the  Western  Hemisphere  seem  obstinately  bent  on  pursuing 
the  work  of  inward  havoc.  If  they  fall  into  a  momentary  repose 
from  the  effects  of  exhaustion,  that  repose  prepares  them  for 
a  fresh  state  of  frenzy.  When  I  consider  their  condition,  which 
alternates  between  misery  and  crime,  I  should  be  inclined  to 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


235 


believe  that  despotism  itself  would  be  a  benefit  to  them,  if  it 
were  possible  that  the  words  despotism  and  benefit  could  ever 
be  united  in  my  mind. 

Conduct  of  Foreign  Affairs  by  tiili:  American  Democracy 


Direction  given  to  the  foreign  policy  of  the  United  States  by  Washing- 
ton and  Jefferson — Almost  all  the  defects  inherent  in  democratic 
institutions  are  brought  to  light  in  the  conduct  of  foreign  affairs — 
Their  advantages  are  less  perceptible. 

We  have  seen  that  the  Federal  Constitution  entrusts  the  per- 
manent direction  of  the  external  interests  of  the  nation  to  the 
President  and  the  Senate/  which  tends  in  some  degree  to  de- 
tach the  general  foreign  policy  of  the  Union  from  the  control 
of  the  people.  It  cannot  therefore  be  asserted  with  truth  that 
the  external  affairs  of  State  are  conducted  by  the  democracy. 

The  policy  of  America  owes  its  rise  to  Washington,  and  after 
him  to  Jefferson,  who  established  those  principles  which  it 
observes  at  the  present  day.  Washington  said  in  the  admirable 
letter  which  he  addressed  to  his  fellov -citizens,  and  which  may 
be  looked  upon  as  his  political  bequest  to  the  country :  "  The 
grep*  rule  of  conduct  for  us  in  regard  to  foreign  nations  is,  in 
extending  our  commercial  relations,  to  have  with  them  as  little 
political  connection  as  possible.  So  far  as  we  have  already 
formed  engagements,  let  them  be  fulfilled  with  perfect  good 
faith.  Here  let  us  stop,  Europe  has  a  set  of  primary  interests 
which  to  us  have  none,  or  a  very  remote  relation.  Hence,  she 
must  be  engaged  in  frequent  controversies,  the  causes  of 
which  are  essentially  foreign  to  our  concc.ns.  Hence,  there- 
fore, it  must  be  unwibc  U:  us  to  implicate  ourselves,  by  artificial 
ties,  in  the  ordi'iary  ^•ici'--situcc*s  of  her  politics,  or  the  ordinary 
combinations  and  cotii  iioiis  cf  li  r  friendships  or  enmities.  Our 
detached  and  dist  uic  situatic  !  invites  and  enables  us  to  pursue 
a  different  courrc.  If  we  remuii)  one  people,  under  an  efficient 
government,  the  peri  or.!  is  not  far  oft  when  we  may  defy  mate- 
rial injury  from  external  annoyance ;  when  we  may  take  such 
an  attitude  as  will  cause  the  neutrality  we  may  at  any  time  re- 
solve upon  to  be  scrupulously  respected ;    when  belligerent 


r  "  The  President,"  says  the  Consti- 
tution, Art.  II,  sect.  2,  §  2,  "  shall  have 
power,  hy  and  with  the  advice  and  con- 
sent of  the  Sen.ite,  to  make  treaties,  pro- 
vided two-thirds  of  the  senators  present 


concur."  The  reader  is  reminded  that 
the  senators  are  returned  for  a  term  of 
six  years,  and  that  they  are  chosen  by 
the  legislature  of  each  State. 


1 


I 


236 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


m 


nations,  under  the  impossibility  of  making  acquisitions  upon 
us,  will  not  lightly  hazard  the  giving  us  provocation;  when 
we  may  choose  peace  or  war,  as  our  interest,  guided  by  justice, 
shall  counsel.  Why  forego  the  advantages  of  so  peculiar  a 
situation  ?  Why  quit  our  own  to  stand  upon  foreign  ground  ? 
Why,  by  interweaving  our  destiny  with  that  of  any  part  of 
Europe,  entangle  our  peace  and  prosperity  in  the  toils  of  Euro- 
pean ambition,  rivalship,  interest,  humor,  or  caprice?  It  is 
our  true  policy  to  steer  clear  of  permanent  alliances  with  any 
portion  of  the  foreign  world;  so  far,  I  mean,  as  we  are.  now 
at  liberty  to  do  it ;  for  let  me  not  be  understood  as  capable  of 
patronizing  infidelity  to  existing  engagements.  I  hold  the 
maxim  no  less  applicable  to  public  than  to  private  afifairs,  that 
honesty  is  always  the  best  policy.  I  repeat  it;  therefore,  let 
those  engagements  be  observed  in  their  genuine  sense ;  but 
in  my  opinion  it  is  unnecessary,  and  would  be  unwise,  to  extend 
them.  Taking  care  always  to  keep  ourselves,  by  suitable  es- 
tablishments, in  a  respectable  defensive  posture,  we  may  safely 
trust  to  temporary  alliances  for  extraordinary  emergencies." 
In  a  previous  part  of  the  same  letter  Washington  makes  the 
following  admirable  and  just  remark :  "  The  nation  which  in- 
dulges towards  another  an  habitual  hatred  or  an  habitual  fond- 
ness is  in  some  degree  a  slave.  It  is  a  slave  to  its  animosity 
or  to  its  affection,  either  of  which  is  sufficient  to  lead  it  astray 
from  its  duty  and  its  interest." 

The  political  conduct  of  Washington  was  always  guided  by 
these  maxims.  He  succeeded  in  maintaining  his  country  in 
a  state  of  peace  whilst  all  the  other  nations  of  the  globe  were 
at  war;  and  he  laid  it  down  as  a  fundamental  doctrine,  that 
the  true  imprest  of  the  Americans  consisted  in  a  perfect  neu- 
trality with  regard  to  the  internal  dissensions  of  the  European 
Powers. 

Jefferson  went  still  further,  and  he  introduced  a  maxim  into 
the  policy  of  the  Union,  which  affirms  that  "  the  Americans 
ought  never  to  solicit  any  privileges  from  foreign  nations,  in 
order  not  to  be  obliged  to  grant  similar  privileges  themselves." 

These  two  principles,  which  were  so  plain  and  so  just  as  to 
be  adapted  to  the  capacity  of  the  populace,  have  greatly  simpli- 
fied the  foreign  policy  of  the  United  States.  As  the  Union 
takes  no  part  in  the  affairs  of  Europe,  it  has,  properly  speaking, 
no  foreign  interests  to  discuss,  since  it  has  at  present  no  power- 


iM 


. '     !,    1 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


237 


ful  neighbors  on  the  American  continent.  The  country  is  as 
much  removed  from  the  passions  of  the  Old  World  by  its  posi- 
tion as  by  the  line  of  policy  which  it  has  chosen,  and  it  is  neither 
called  upon  to  repudiate  nor  to  espouse  the  conflicting  interests 
of  Europe ;  whilst  the  dissensions  of  the  New  World  are  still 
concealed  within  the  bosom  of  the  future. 

The  Union  is  free  from  all  pre-existing  obligations,  and  it 
is  consequently  enabled  to  profit  by  the  experience  of  the  old 
nations  of  Europe,  without  being  obliged,  as  they  are,  to  make 
the  best  of  the  past,  and  to  adapt  it  to  their  present  circum- 
stances ;  or  to  accept  that  immense  inheritance  which  they 
derive  from  their  forefathers — an  inheritance  of  glory  mingled 
with  calamities,  and  of  alliances  conflicting  with  national  an- 
tipathies. The  foreign  policy  of  the  United  States  is  reduced 
by  its  very  nature  to  await  the  chances  of  the  future  history  of 
the  nation,  and  for  the  present  it  consists  more  in  abstaining 
from  interference  than  in  exerting  its  activity. 

It  is  therefore  very  difficult  to  ascertain,  at  present,  what 
degree  of  sagacity  the  American  democracy  will  display  in 
the  conduct  of  the  foreign  policy  of  the  country;  and  upon 
this  point  its  adversaries,  as  well  as  its  advocates,  must  suspend 
their  judgment.  As  for  myself  I  have  no  hesitation  in  avowing 
my  convictior ,  that  it  is  most  especially  in  the  conduct  of  for- 
eign relations  that  democratic  governments  appear  to  me  to  be 
decidedly  inferior  to  governments  carried  on  upon  dififerent 
principles.  Experience,  instruction,  and  habit  may  almost  al- 
ways succeed  in  creating  a  species  of  practical  discret.on  in 
democracies,  and  that  science  of  the  daily  occurrences  of  life 
which  is  called  good  sense.  Good  sense  may  suffice  to  direct 
the  ordinary  course  of  society;  and  amongst  a  people  whose 
edurrition  has  been  provided  for,  the  advantages  of  democratic 
liberty  in  the  internal  afifairs  of  the  country  may  more  than 
compensate  for  the  evils  inherent  in  a  democratic  government. 
But  such  is  not  always  the  case  in  the  mutual  relations  of  for- 
eign nations. 

Foreign  politics  demand  scarcely  any  of  those  qualities  which 
a  democracy  possesses ;  and  they  require,  on  the  contrary,  the 
pertect  use  of  almost  all  those  faculties  in  which  it  is  deficient. 
Democracy  is  favorable  to  the  increase  of  the  internal  re- 
sources of  the  State ;  it  tends  to  diffuse  a  moderate  indepen- 
dence;  it  promotes  the  growth  of  public  spirit,  and  fortifies 


if 


1 


■»*»*»*<«»i*«MB««W-«w-. 


I  . 


'\  - 


238 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


the  respect  which  is  entertained  for  law  in  all  classes  of  society ; 
and  these  are  advantages  which  only  exercise  an  indirect  in- 
fluence over  the  relations  which  one  people  bears  to  another. 
But  a  democracy  is  unable  to  regulate  the  details  of  an  impor- 
tant undertaking,  to  persevere  in  a  design,  and  to  work  out 
its  execution  in  the  presence  of  serious  obstacles.  It  cannot 
combine  its  measures  with  secrecy,  and  it  will  not  await  their 
consequences  with  patience.  These  are  qualities  which  more 
especially  belong  to  an  individual  or  to  an  aristocracy;  and 
they  are  precisely  the  means  by  which  an  individual  people  at- 
tains to  a  predominant  position. 

If,  on  the  contrary,  we  observe  the  natural  defects  of  aris- 
tocracy, we  shall  find  that  their  influence  is  comparatively  in- 
noxious in  the  direction  of  the  external  affairs  of  a  State.  The 
capital  fault  of  which  aristocratic  bodies  may  be  accused  is  that 
they  are  more  apt  to  contrive  Uieir  own  advantage  than  that 
of  the  mass  of  the  people.  In  foreign  politics  it  is  rare  for  the 
interest  of  the  aristocracy  10  be  in  any  wny  distinct  from  that 
of  the  people. 

The  propensity  which  democracies  have  to  obey  the  impulse 
of  passion  rather  than  the  suggestions  of  prudence,  and  to 
abandon  a  mat. ire  design  for  the  gratification  of  a  momentary 
caprice,  was  very  clearly  seen  in  America  on  the  breaking  out 
of  the  French  Revolution.  It  was  then  as  evident  to  the  sim- 
plest capacity  as  it  is  at  the  present  time  that  the  interest  of 
the  Americans  forbade  them  to  take  any  part  in  the  contest 
which  was  about  to  deluge  Europe  with  blood,  but  which  could 
by  no  iTieans  injure  the  welfare  of  their  own  country.  Never- 
theless the  sympathies  of  the  people  declared  themselves  with 
so  much  violence  in  behalf  of  France  that  nothing  but  the  in- 
flexible character  of  Washington,  and  the  immense  popularity 
which  he  enjoyed,  could  have  prevented  the  Americans  from 
declaring  war  against  England.  And  even  then,  the  exertions 
which  the  austere  reason  of  that  great  man  made  to  repress  the 
generous  but  imprudent  passions  of  his  fellow-citizens,  very 
nearly  deprived  him  of  the  sole  recompense  which  he  had  ever 
claimed — tl  at  of  his  country's  love.  The  majority  then  repro- 
batt>d  the  line  of  pc'irv  which  he  adopted,  and  which  has  since 
been  i;naniniousIy  approved  by  the  nation.^    If  the  Constitu- 


u 


J  See  the   fifth    voliim*   of   M.^rshall's 
"  Life    of    Washington."      In    a    gov- 


ernment   constituted    like    that    of   the 


'il 


v"* 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


239 


tion  and  the  favor  of  the  public  had  not  entrusted  the  direction 
of  the  foreign  affairs  of  the  country  to  Washington,  it  is  certain 
that  the  American  nation  would  at  that  time  have  taken  the 
very  measures  which  it  now  condemns. 

Almost  all  the  nations  which  have  ever  exercised  a  powerful 
influence  upon  the  destinies  of  the  world  by  conceiving,  follow- 
ing up,  and  executing  vast  designs — from  the  Romans  to  the 
English — have  been  governed  by  aristocratic  institutions.  Nor 
will  this  be  a  subject  of  wonder  when  we  recollect  that  nothing 
in  the  world  has  so  absolute  a  fixity  of  purpose  as  an  aristoc- 
racy. The  mass  of  the  people  may  be  led  astray  by  ignorance 
or  passion ;  the  mind  of  a  king  may  be  biased,  and  his  perse- 
verance in  his  designs  may  be  shaken — besides  which  a  king 
is  not  immortal — but  an  aristocratic  body  is  too  numerous  to 
be  led  astray  by  the  blandishments  of  intrigue,  and  yet  not 
numerous  enough  to  yield  reaclily  to  the  intoxicating  influence 
of  unreflecting  passion:  it  has  the  energy  of  a  firm  and  en- 
lightened individual,  added  to  the  power  which  it  derives  from 
perpetuity. 


siblc  for  the  chief  magistrate,  however 
firm  he  may  be,  to  oppose  for  any 
length  of  time  the  torrent  of  popular 
opinion;  and  the  prevalent  opinion  of 
that  day  seemed  to  incline  to  war.  In 
fact,  in  the  session  of  Congress  held  at 
the  time,  it  was  frequently  seen  that 
Washington  had  lost  the  majority  in 
the  House  of  Representatives."  The  vio- 
lence of  the  language  used  against  him 
in  public  was  extreme,  and  in  a  political 
meeting  they  did  not  scruple  to  com- 
pare him  indirectly  to  the  treacherous 


Arnold.  "  By  the  opposition,"  says 
Marshall,  "  the  friends  of  the  adminis- 
tration were  declared  to  be  an  aristo- 
cratic and  corrupt  faction,  who,  from 
a  desire  to  introduce  monarchy,  were 
hostile  to  France  and  under  the  influ- 
ence of  Britain;  that  they  were  a  paper 
nobility,  whose  extreme  sensibility  at 
everv  measure  which  threatened  the 
funds,  induced  a  tame  submission  to 
injuries  and  insults,  which  the  inter- 
ests and  honor  of  the  nation  required 
them  to  resist." 


I 


i 

ir.'i 


if' 


CHAPTER  XIV 

WHAT  THE  REAL  ADVANTAGES  ARE  WHICH  AMERICAN 
SOCIETY  DERIVES  FROM  THE  GOVERNMENT  OF  THE 
DEMOCRACY 

BEFORE  I  enter  upon  the  subject  of  the  present  chapter 
I  am  induced  to  remind  the  reader  of  what  I  have  more 
than  once  adverted  to  in  the  course  of  this  book.  The 
political  institutions  of  the  United  States  appear  to  nie  to  be 
one  of  the  forms  of  government  which  a  democracy  may  adopt ; 
but  I  do  not  regard  the  American  Constitution  as  the  best,  or 
as  the  only  one,  which  a  democratic  people  may  establish.  In 
showing  the  advantages  which  the  Americans  derive  from  the 
government  of  democracy,  I  am  therefore  very  far  from  mean- 
ing, or  from  believing,  that  similar  advantages  can  only  be 
obtained  from  the  same  laws. 


1 1 


General  Tendency  of  the  Laws  under  the  Rule  of  the 
American  Democracy,  and  Habits  of  Those  who  Ap- 
ply THEM 

Defects  of  a  democratic  government  easy  to  be  discovered — Its  ad- 
vantages only  to  be  discerned  by  long  observation — Democracy  in 
America  often  inexpert,  but  the  general  tendency  of  the  laws  ad- 
vantageous— In  the  American  democracy  public  officers  have  no 
permanent  interests  distinct  from  those  of  the  majority — Result  of 
this  state  of  things. 

The  defects  and  the  weaknesses  of  a  democratic  government 
may  very  readily  be  discovered ;  they  are  demonstrated  by 
the  most  flagrant  instances,  whilst  its  beneficial  influence  is  less 
perceptibly  exercised.  A  single  glance  suffices  to  detect  its 
evil  consequences,  but  its  good  qualities  can  only  be  discerned 
by  long  observation.  The  laws  of  the  American  democracy 
are  frequently  defective  or  incomplete ;  they  sometimes  attack 
vested  rights,  or  give  a  sanction  to  others  which  are  dangerous 

240 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


241 


to  the  community;  but  even  if  they  were  good,  the  frequent 
changes  which  they  undergo  would  be  an  evil.  How  comes  it, 
then,  that  the  American  republics  prosper  and  maintain  their 
position  ? 

In  the  consideration  of  laws  a  distinction  must  be  carefully 
observed  between  the  end  at  which  they  aim  and  the  means  by 
which  they  are  directed  to  that  end,  between  their  absolute 
and  their  relative  excellence.  If  it  be  the  intention  of  the  leg- 
islator to  favor  the  interests  of  the  minority  at  the  expense  of 
the  majority,  and  if  the  measures  he  takes  are  so  combined  as 
to  accomplish  the  object  he  has  in  view  with  the  least  possible 
expense  of  time  and  exertion,  the  law  may  be  well  drawn  up, 
although  its  purpose  be  bad;  and  the  more  efficacious  it  is, 
the  greater  is  the  mischief  which  it  causes. 

Democratic  laws  generally  tend  to  promote  the  welfare  of 
the  greatest  possible  number ;  for  they  emanate  from  the  ma- 
jority of  the  citizens,  who  are  subject  to  error,  but  who  can- 
not have  an  interest  opposed  to  their  own  advantage.  The  laws 
of  an  aristocracy  tend,  on  the  contrary,  to  concentrate  wealth 
and  power  in  the  hands  of  the  minority,  because  an  aristocracy, 
by  its  very  nature,  constitutes  a  minority.  It  may  therefore  be 
asserted,  as  a  general  proposition,  that  the  purpose  of  a  dem- 
ocracy in  the  conduct  of  its  legislation  is  useful  to  a  greater 
number  of  citizens  than  that  of  an  aristocracy.  This  is,  how- 
ever, the  sum  total  of  its  advantages. 

Aristocracies  are  infinitely  more  expert  in  the  science  of 
legislation  than  democracies  ever  can  be.  They  are  possessed 
of  a  self-control  which  protects  them  from  the  errors  of  tem- 
porary excitement,  and  they  form  lasting  designs  which  they 
mature  with  the  assistance  of  favorable  opportunities.  Aristo- 
cratic government  proceeds  with  the  dexterity  of  art ;  it  under- 
stands how  to  make  the  collective  force  of  all  its  laws  converge 
at  the  same  time  to  a  given  point.  Such  is  not  the  case  with 
democracies,  whose  laws  are  almost  always  ineffective  or  in- 
opportune. The  means  of  democracy  are  therefore  more  im- 
perfect than  those  of  aristocracy,  and  the  measures  which  it  un- 
wittingly adopts  are  frequently  opposed  to  its  own  cause ;  but 
the  object  it  has  in  view  is  more  useful. 

Let  us  now  imagine  a  community  so  organized  by  nature, 
or  by  its  constitution,  that  it  can  support  the  transitcfry  ac- 
tion of  bad  laws,  and  that  it  can  await,  without  destruction, 
Vol.  I.— 16 


V 


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1'  M 

I 


In 


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1 


242 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


the  general  tendency  of  the  legislation :  we  shall  then  be  able 
to  conceive  that  a  democratic  government,  notwithstanding 
its  defects,  will  be  most  fitted  to  conduce  to  the  prosperity  of 
this  community.  This  is  precisely  what  has  occurred  in  the 
United  States ;  and  I  repeat,  what  I  have  before  remarked, 
that  the  great  advantage  of  the  \inericans  consists  in  their 
being  able  to  commit  faults  which  tltvy  may  afterward  repair. 

An  analogous  observation  may  be  made  respecting  public 
officers.  It  is  easy  to  perceive  that  the  American  democracy 
frequently  errs  in  the  choice  of  the  individuals  to  whom  it  en 
trusts  the  power  of  the  administration ;  but  it  is  more  difficult 
to  say  why  the  State  prospers  under  their  rule.  In  the  first 
place  it  is  to  be  remarked,  that  if  in  a  democratic  State  the 
governors  have  less  honesty  and  less  capacity  than  elsewhere, 
the  governed,  on  the  oth(T  hand,  arc  more  enlightened  and 
more  attentive  to  their  interests.  As  the  people  in  democracies 
is  more  incessantly  vigilant  in  its  affairs  and  more  jealous  of 
its  rights,  it  prevents  its  representatives  from  abandoning  that 
general  line  of  conduct  which  its  own  interest  prescribes.  In 
the  second  place,  it  must  be  remembered  that  if  the  democratic 
magistrate  is  more  apt  to  misuse  his  power,  he  possesses  it  for 
a  shorter  period  of  time.  But  there  is  yet  another  reason 
which  is  still  more  general  and  conclusive.  It  is  no  doubt  of 
importance  to  the  welfare  of  nations  that  they  should  be  gov- 
erned h-/  men  of  talents  and  virtue ;  but  it  is  perhaps  still  more 
important  that  the  interests  of  those  men  should  not  differ 
from  the  interests  of  the  community  at  large ;  for,  if  such  were 
the  case,  virtues  of  a  high  order  might  become  useless,  and 
talents  might  be  turned  to  a  bad  account.  I  say  that  it  is  im- 
portant that  the  interests  of  the  persons  in  authority  should 
not  conflict  with  or  oppose  the  interests  of  the  community  at 
large ;  but  I  do  not  insist  upon  their  having  the  same  interests 
as  the  whole  population,  because  I  am  not  aware  that  such  a 
state  of  things  ever  existed  in  any  country. 

No  political  form  has  hitherto  been  discovered  which  is  equal- 
ly favorable  to  the  prosperity  and  the  development  of  all  the 
classes  into  which  society  is  divided.  These  classes  continue  to 
form,  as  it  were,  a  certain  number  of  distinct  nations  in  the 
same  nation ;  and  experience  has  shown  that  it  is  no  less  dan- 
gerous to  place  the  fate  of  these  classes  exclusively  in  the  hands 
of  any  one  of  them  than  it  is  to  make  one  people  the  arbiter  of 


U^ 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


a43 


the  destiny  of  another.  When  the  rich  alone  govern,  the  in- 
terest of  the  poor  is  always  endangered ;  and  when  the  poor 
make  the  laws,  that  of  the  rich  incurs  very  scrr.ous  risks.  The 
advnntagc  of  democracy  docs  not  consist,  therefore,  as  has 
sometimes  been  asserted,  in  favoring  the  prosperity  of  all,  but 
simply  in  contributing  to  the  well-being  of  the  greatest  possible 
number. 

The  men  who  are  entrusted  with  the  direction  of  public  af- 
fairs in  the  United  States  are  frequently  inferior,  both  in  point 
of  capacity  and  of  morality,  to  those  whom  aristocratic  institu- 
tions would  raise  to  power.  But  their  interest  is  identifie<!  and 
confounded  with  that  of  the  majority  of  their  fellow-citizens. 
They  may  frequently  be  faithless  and  frequently  mistaken,  but 
they  will  never  systematically  adopt  a  line  of  conduct  opposed 
to  the  will  of  the  rity  ;  and  it  is  impossible  that  they  should 

give  a  dangeroi  an  exclusive  tendency  to  the  government. 

The  mal-administration  of  a  democratic  magistrate  is  a  mere 
isolated  fact,  which  only  occurs  during  the  short  period  for 
which  he  is  elected.  Corruption  and  incapacity  do  not  act  as 
common  interests,  which  may  connect  men  permanently  with 
one  another.  A  corrupt  or  an  incapable  magistrate  will  not 
concert  his  measures  with  another  magistrate,  simply  because 
that  individual  is  as  corrupt  and  as  incapable  as  himself ;  and 
these  two  men  will  never  unite  their  endeavors  to  promote  the 
corruption  and  inaptitude  of  their  remote  posterity.  The  am- 
bition and  the  manoeuvres  of  the  one  will  serve,  on  the  cqn- 
trary,  to  unmask  the  other.  The  vices  of  a  magistrate,  in  dem- 
ocratic states,  are  usually  peculiar  to  his  own  person. 

But  under  aristocratic  governments  public  men  are  swayed 
by  the  interest  of  their  order,  which,  if  it  is  sometimes  con- 
founded with  the  interests  of  the  majority,  is  very  frequently 
distinct  from  them.  This  interest  is  the  common  and  lasting 
bond  which  unites  them  together;  it  induces  them  to  coa- 
lesce, and  to  combine  their  efforts  in  order  to  attain  an  end 
which  does  not  always  ensure  the  greatest  happiness  of  the 
greatest  number;  and  it  serves  not  only  to  connect  the  per- 
sons in  authority,  but  to  unite  them  to  a  considerable  portion 
of  the  community,  since  a  numerous  body  of  citizens  belongs 
to  the  aristocracy,  without  being  invested  with  official  func- 
tions. The  aristocratic  magistrate  is  therefore  constantly  sup- 
ported by  a  portion  of  the  community,  as  well  as  by  the  Gov- 
ernment of  which  he  is  a  member. 


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344 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


The  common  purpose  which  connects  the  interest  of  the 
magistrates  in  aristocracies  with  that  of  a  portion  of  their 
contemporaries  identifies  it  with  that  of  future  generations; 
their  influence  belongs  to  the  future  as  much  as  to  the  present. 
The  aristocratic  magistrate  is  urged  at  the  same  time  toward 
the  same  point  by  the  passions  of  the  community,  by  his  own, 
and  I  may  almost  add  by  those  of  his  posterity.  Is  it,  then, 
wonderful  that  he  does  not  resist  such  repeated  impulses? 
And  indeed  aristocracies  are  often  carried  away  by  the  sp'rit 
of  their  order  without  being  corrupted  by  it;  and  they  un- 
consciously fashion  society  to  their  own  ends,  and  prepare  it 
for  their  own  descendants. 

The  English  aristocracy  is  perhaps  the  most  liberal  which 
ever  existed,  and  no  body  of  men  has  ever,  uninterruptedly, 
furnished  so  many  honorable  and  enlightened  individuals  to 
the  government  of  a  country.  It  cannot,  however,  escape  ob- 
servation that  in  the  legislation  of  England  the  good  of  the 
poor  has  been  sacrificed  to  the  advantage  of  the  rich,  and  the 
rights  of  the  majority  to  the  privileges  of  the  few.  The  con- 
sequence is,  that  England,  at  the  present  day,  combines  the 
extremes  of  fortune  in  the  bosom  of  her  society,  and  her  perils 
and  calamities  are  almost  equal  to  her  power  and  her  renown.o 

In  the  United  States,  where  the  public  officers  have  no  in- 
terests to  promote  connected  with  their  caste,  the  general  and 
constant  influence  of  the  Government  is  beneficial,  although 
the  individuals  who  conduct  it  are  frequently  unskilful  and 
sometimes  contemptible.  There  is  indeed  a  secret  tendency  in 
democratic  institutions  to  render  the  exertions  of  the  citizens 
subservient  to  the  prosperity  of  the  community,  notwithstand- 
ing their  private  vices  and  mistakes ;  whilst  in  aristocratic  in- 
stitutions there  is  a  secret  propensity  which,  notwithstanding 
the  talents  and  the  virtues  of  those  who  conduct  the  govern- 
ment, leads  them  to  contribute  to  the  evils  which  oppress  their 
fellow-creatures.  In  aristocratic  governments  public  men  may 
frequently  do  injuries  which  they  do  not  intend,  and  in  demo- 
cratic states  they  produce  advantages  which  they  never  thought 
of. 


a  [The  legislation  of  England  {or  the 
fortv  years  is  certainly  not  fairly  open 
to  this  criticism,  which  was  written  be- 
fore the  Reform  Bill  of  1832,  and  accord- 


ingly Great  Britain  has  thus  far  escaped 
and  surmounted  the  perils  and  calami- 
ties to  which  she  seemed  to  be  ex- 
posed.] 


1^        : 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


Public  Spirit  in  the  United  States 


*45 


/ 


Patriotism  of  instinct— Patriotism  of  reflection— Their  different  char- 
acteristics— Nations  ought  to  strive  to  acquire  the  second  when  the 
first  has  disappeared— Efforts  of  the  Americans  to  acquire  it — In- 
terest of  the  individual  intimately  connected  with  that  of  the  country. 

There  is  one  sort  of  patriotic  attachment  which  principally 
arises  from  that  instinctive,  disinterested,  and  undefinable  feel- 
ing which  connects  the  affections  of  man  with  his  birthplace. 
This  natural  fondness  is  united  to  a  taste  for  ancient  customs, 
and  to  a  reverence  for  ancestral  traditions  of  the  past ;  those 
who  cherish  it  love  their  country  as  they  love  the  mansions  of 
their  fathers.  They  enjoy  the  tranquillity  which  it  affords 
them ;  they  cling  to  the  peaceful  habits  which  they  have  con- 
tracted within  its  bosom;  they  are  attached  to  the  reminis- 
cences which  it  awakens,  and  they  are  even  pleased  by  the  state 
of  obedience  in  which  they  are  placed.  This  patriotism  is 
sometimes  stimulated  by  religious  enthusiasm,  and  then  it  is 
capable  of  making  the  most  prodigious  efforts.  It  is  in  itself 
a  kind  of  religion ;  it  does  not  reason,  but  it  acts  from  the  im- 
pulse of  faith  and  of  sentiment.  By  some  nations  the  monarch 
has  been  regarded  as  a  personification  of  the  country ;  and  the 
fervor  of  patriotism  being  converted  into  the  fervor  of  loyalty, 
they  took  a  sympathetic  pride  in  his  conquests,  and  gloried  in 
his  power.  At  one  time,  under  the  ancient  monarchy,  the 
French  felt  a  sort  of  satisfaction  in  the  sense  of  their  dependence 
upon  the  arbitrary  pleasure  of  their  king,  and  they  were  wont 
to  say  with  pride,  "  We  are  the  subjects  of  the  most  powerful 
king  in  the  world." 

But,  like  all  instinctive  passions,  this  kind  of  patriotism  is 
more  apt  to  prompt  transient  exertion  than  to  supply  the  mo- 
tives of  continuous  endeavor.  It  may  save  the  State  in  critical 
circumstances,  but  it  will  not  unfrequently  allow  the  nation  to 
decline  in  the  midst  of  peace.  Whilst  the  manners  of  a  people 
are  simple  and  its  faith  unshaken,  whilst  society  is  steadily 
based  upon  traditional  institutions  whose  legitimacy  has  never 
been  contested,  this  instinctive  patriotism  is  wont  to  endure. 

But  there  is  another  species  of  attachment  to  a  country 
which  is  more  rational  than  the  one  we  have  been  describing. 
It  is  perhaps  less  generous  and  less  ardent,  but  it  is  more 
fruitful  and  more  lasting ;  it  is  coeval  with  the  spread  of  knowl- 


t; 


4 

•■i' 
t 


.1 


246 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


edge,  it  is  nurtured  by  the  laws,  it  grows  by  the  exercise  of 
civil  rights,  and,  in  the  end,  it  is  confounded  with  the  personal 
interest  of  the  citizen.  A  man  comprehends  the  influence 
which  the  prosperity  of  his  country  has  upon  his  own  welfare ; 
he  is  aware  that  the  laws  authorize  him  to  c  jntribute  his  as- 
sistance to  that  prosperity,  and  he  labors  to  promote  it  as  a  por- 
tion of  his  interest  in  the  first  place,  and  as  a  portion  of  his 
right  in  the  second. 

But  epochs  sometimes  occur,  in  the  course  of  the  existence 
of  a  nation,  at  which  the  ancient  customs  of  a  people  are 
changed,  public  morality  destroyed,  religious  belief  disturbed, 
and  the  spell  of  tradition  broken,  whilst  the  diffusion  of  knowl- 
edge is  yet  imperfect,  and  the  civil  rights  of  the  community 
are  ill  secured,  or  confined  within  very  narrow  limits.  The 
country  then  assumes  a  dim  and  dubious  shape  in  the  eyes  of 
the  citizens;  they  no  longer  behold  it  in  the  soil  which  they 
inhabit,  for  that  soil  is  to  them  a  dull  inanimate  clod ;  nor  in 
the  usages  of  their  forefathers,  which  they  have  been  taught  to 
look  upon  as  a  debasing  yoke ;  nor  in  religion,  for  of  that  they 
doubt;  nor  in  the  laws,  which  do  not  originate  in  their  own 
authority ;  nor  in  the  legislator,  whom  they  fear  and  despise. 
The  country  is  lost  to  their  senses,  they  can  neither  discover 
it  under  its  own  nor  under  borrowed  features,  and  they  en- 
trench themselves  within  the  dull  precincts  of  a  narrow  egot- 
ism. They  are  emancipated  from  prejudice  without  having  ac- 
knowledged the  empire  of  reason ;  they  are  neither  animated 
by  the  instinctive  patriotism  of  monarchical  subjects  nor  by 
the  thinking  patriotism  of  republican  citizens ;  but  they  have 
stopped  halfway  between  the  two,  in  the  midst  of  confusion 
and  of  distress. 

In  this  predicament,  to  retreat  is  impossible;  for  a  people 
cannot  restore  the  vivacity  of  its  earlier  times,  any  more  than 
a  man  can  return  to  the  innocence  and  the  bloom  of  childhood ; 
such  things  may  be  regretted,  but  they  cannot  be  renewed. 
The  only  thing,  then,  which  remains  to  be  done  is  to  proceed, 
and  to  accelerate  the  union  of  private  with  public  interests, 
since  the  period  of  disinterested  patriotism  is  gone  by  forever. 

I  am  certainly  very  far  from  averring  that,  in  order  to  ob- 
tain this  result,  the  exercise  of  political  rights  should  be  im- 
mediately granted  to  all  the  members  of  the  community.  But 
I  maintain  that  the  most  powerful,  and  perhaps  the  only,  means 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


247 


of  interesting  men  in  the  welfare  of  their  country  which  we 
still  possess  is  to  make  them  partakers  in  the  Government. 
At  the  present  time  civic  zeal  seems  to  me  to  be  inseparable 
from  the  exercise  of  political  rights ;  and  I  hold  that  the  num- 
ber of  citizens  will  be  found  to  augment  or  to  decrease  in 
Europe  in  proportion  as  those  rights  are  extended. 

In  the  United  States  the  inhabitants  were  thrown  but  as 
yesterday  upon  the  soil  which  they  now  occupy,  and  they 
brought  neither  customs  nor  traditions  with  them  there ;  they 
meet  each  other  for  the  first  time  with  no  previous  acquaint- 
ance ;  in  short,  the  instinctive  love  of  their  country  can  scarcely 
exist  in  their  minds ;  but  everyone  takes  as  zealous  an  interest 
in  the  affairs  of  his  township,  his  county,  and  of  the  whole 
State,  as  if  they  were  his  own,  because  everyone,  in  his  sphere, 
takes  an  active  part  in  the  government  of  society. 

The  lower  orders  in  the  United  States  are  alive  to  the  per- 
ception of  the  influence  exercised  by  the  general  prosperity 
upon  their  own  welfare ;  and  simple  as  this  observation  is,  it 
is  one  which  is  but  too  rarely  made  by  the  people.  But  in 
America  the  people  regards  this  prosperity  as  the  result  of 
its  own  exertions;  the  citizen  looks  upon  the  fortune  of  the 
public  as  his  private  interest,  and  he  co-operates  in  its  success, 
not  so  much  from  a  sense  of  pride  or  of  duty,  as  from  what  I 
shall  venture  to  term  cupidity. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  study  the  institutions  and  the  history 
of  the  Americans  in  order  to  discover  the  truth  of  this  re- 
mark, for  their  manners  render  it  sufficiently  evident.  As  the 
American  participates  in  all  that  is  done  in  his  country,  he 
thinks  himself  obliged  to  defend  whatever  may  be  censured ; 
for  it  is  not  only  his  country  which  is  attacked  upon  these 
occasions,  but  it  is  himself.  The  consequence  is,  that  his  na- 
tional pride  resorts  to  a  thousand  artifices,  and  to  all  the  petty 
tricks  of  individual  vanity. 

Nothing  is  more  embarrassing  in  the  ordinary  intercourse 
of  life  than  this  irritable  patriotism  of  the  Americans.  A 
stranger  may  be  very  well  inclined  to  praise  many  of  the  in- 
stitutions of  their  country,  but  he  begs  permission  to  blame 
some  of  the  peculiarities  which  he  observes — a  permission 
which  is,  however,  inexorably  refused.  America  is  therefore  a 
free  country,  in  which,  lest  anybody  should  be  hurt  by  your 
remarks,  you  are  not  allowed  to  speak  freely  of  private  indi- 


(■ 


'     I 


248 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


viduals,  or  of  the  State,  of  the  citizens  or  of  the  authorities, 
of  public  or  of  private  undertakings,  or,  in  short,  of  anything 
at  all,  except  it  be  of  the  climate  and  the  soil ;  and  even  then 
Americans  will  be  found  ready  to  defend  either  the  one  or  the 
other,  as  if  they  had  been  contrived  by  the  inhabitants  of  the 
country. 

In  our  times  option  must  be  made  between  the  patriotism 
of  all  and  the  government  of  a  few ;  for  the  force  and  activity 
which  the  first  confers  are  irreconcilable  with  the  guarantees 
of  tranquillity  which  the  second  furnishes. 


Notion  of  Rights  in  the  United  States 

No  great  people  without  a  notion  of  rights — How  the  notion  of  rights 
can  be  given  to  people — Respect  of  rights  in  the  United  States — 
Whence  it  arises. 

After  the  idea  of  virtue,  I  know  no  higher  principle  than 
that  of  right;  or,  to  speak  more  accurately,  these  two  ideas 
are  commingled  in  one.  The  idea  of  right  is  simply  that  of 
virtue  introduced  into  the  political  world.  It  is  the  idea  of 
right  which  enabled  men  to  define  anarchy  and  tyranny;  and 
which  taught  them  to  remain  independent  without  arrogance, 
as  well  as  to  obey  without  servility.  The  man  who  submits 
to  violence  is  debased  by  his  compliance ;  but  when  he  obeys 
the  mandate  of  one  who  possesses  that  right  of  atithority  which 
he  acknowledges  in  a  fellow-creature,  he  rises  in  some  measure 
above  the  person  who  delivers  the  command.  There  are  no 
great  men  without  virtue,  and  there  are  no  great  nations — 
it  may  almost  be  added  that  there  would  be  no  society — with- 
out the  notion  of  rights ;  for  what  is  the  condition  of  a  mass  of 
rational  and  intelligent  beings  who  are  only  united  together  by 
the  bond  of  force  ? 

I  am  persuaded  that  the  only  means  which  we  possess  at 
the  present  time  of  inculcating  the  notion  of  rights,  and  of 
rendering  it,  as  it  were,  palpable  to  the  senses,  is  to  invest 
all  the  members  of  the  community  with  the  peaceful  exercise 
of  certain  rights:  this  is  very  clearly  seen  in  children,  who 
are  men  without  the  strength  and  the  experience  of  manhood. 
When  a  child  begins  to  move  in  the  midst  of  the  objects 
which  surround  him,  he  is  instinctively  led  to  turn  every- 
thing which  he  can  lay  his  hands  upon  to  his  own  purposes ; 


I)     i  '1- 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


■4» 


by 


he  has  no  notion  of  the  property  of  others ;  but  as  he  gradually 
learns  the  value  of  things,  and  begins  to  perceive  that  he 
may  in  his  turn  be  deprived  of  his  possessions,  he  becomes 
more  circumspect,  and  he  observes  those  rights  in  others  which 
he  wishes  to  have  respected  in  himself.  The  principle  which 
the  child  derives  from  the  possession  of  his  toys  is  taught  to 
the  man  by  the  objects  which  he  may  call  his  own.  In  America 
those  complaints  against  property  in  general  which  are  so 
frequent  in  Europe  are  never  heard,  because  in  America  there 
are  no  paupers ;  and  as  everyone  has  property  of  his  own  to 
defend,  everyone  recognizes  the  princinle  upon  which  he  holds 
it. 

The  same  thing  occurs  in  the  political  world.  In  America 
the  lowest  classes  have  conceived  a  very  high  notion  of  political 
rights,  because  they  exercise  those  rights;  and  they  refrain 
from  attacking  those  of  other  people,  in  order  to  ensure  their 
own  from  attack.  Whilst  in  Europe  the  same  classes  some- 
times recalcitrate  even  against  the  supreme  power,  the  Ameri- 
can submits  without  a  murmur  to  the  authority  of  the  pettiest 
magistrate. 

This  truth  is  exemplified  by  the  most  trivial  details  of  na- 
tional peculiarities.  In  France  very  few  pleasures  are  ex- 
clusively reserved  for  the  higher  classes;  the  poor  are  ad- 
mitted wherever  the  rich  are  received,  and  they  consequently 
behave  with  propriety,  and  respect  whatever  contributes  to 
the  enjoyments  in  which  they  themselves  participate.  In  Eng- 
land, where  wealth  has  a  monopoly  of  amusement  as  well  as  of 
power,  complaints  are  made  that  whenever  the  poor  happen 
to  steal  into  the  enclosures  which  are  reserved  for  the  pleas- 
ures of  the  rich,  they  commit  acts  of  wanton  mischief:  can 
this  be  wondered  at,  since  care  has  been  taken  that  they  should 
have  nothing  to  lose  ?t> 

The  government  of  democracy  brings  the  notion  of  political 
rights  to  the  level  of  the  humblest  citizens,  just  as  the  dis- 
semination of  wealth  brings  the  notion  of  property  within  the 
reach  of  all  the  members  of  the  community ;  and  I  confess  that, 
to  my  mind,  this  is  one  of  its  greatest  advantages.  I  do  not 
assert  that  it  is  easy  to  teach  men  to  exercise  political  rights ; 


;i 


b  [This,  too,  has  been  .nmended  by 
much  larger  provisions  for  the  amuse- 
ments of  the  people  in  public  parks, 
gardens,   museums,  etc.;  and  the  con- 


duct of  the  people  in  these  places  of 
amusement  has  improved  in  the  same 
proportion.] 


ll 


ysiffiimi  »!i|i)aiiiii«amn«i 


E    ij 


w,\^'Vi 


050 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


but  I  maintain  that,  when  it  is  possible,  the  effects  which  re- 
sult from  it  are  highly  important ;  and  I  add  that,  if  there  ever 
was  a  time  at  which  such  an  attempt  ought  to  be  made,  that 
time  is  our  own.  It  is  clear  that  the  influence  of  religious  be- 
hef  is  shaken,  and  that  the  notion  of  divine  rights  is  declining ; 
it  is  evident  that  public  morality  is  vitiated,  and  the  notion  of 
moral  rights  is  also  disappearing :  these  are  general  symptoms 
of  the  substitution  of  argument  for  faith,  and  of  calculation  for 
the  impulses  of  sentiment.  If,  in  the  midst  of  this  general  dis- 
ruption, you  do  not  succeed  in  connecting  the  notion  of  rights 
with  that  of  personal  interest,  which  is  the  only  immutable 
point  in  the  human  heart,  what  means  will  you  have  of  gov- 
erning the  world  except  by  fear?  When  I  am  told  that,  since 
the  laws  are  weak  and  the  populace  is  wild,  since  passions  are 
excited  and  the  authority  of  virtue  is  paralyzed,  no  measures 
must  be  taken  to  increase  the  rights  of  the  democracy,  I  reply, 
that  it  is  for  these  very  reasons  that  some  measures  of  the 
kind  must  be  taken;  and  I  am  persuaded  that  governments 
are  still  more  interested  in  taking  them  than  society  at  large, 
because  governments  are  liable  to  be  destroyed  and  society 
cannot  perish. 

I  am  not,  however,  inclined  to  exaggerate  the  example 
which  America  furnishes.  In  those  States  the  people  are  in- 
vested with  political  rights  at  a  time  when  they  could  scarcely 
be  abused,  for  the  citizens  were  few  in  number  and  simple  in 
their  manners.  As  they  have  increased,  the  Americans  have 
not  augmented  the  power  of  the  democracy,  but  they  have,  if  I 
may  use  the  expression,  extended  its  dominions. 

It  cannot  be  doubted  that  the  moment  at  which  political 
rights  are  granted  to  a  people  that  had  before  been  without 
them  is  a  very  critical,  though  it  be  a  necessary  one.  A  child 
may  kill  before  he  is  aware  of  the  value  of  life ;  and  he  may 
deprive  another  person  of  his  property  before  he  is  aware 
that  his  own  may  be  taken  away  from  him.  The  lower  orders, 
when  first  they  are  invested  with  political  rights,  stand,  in  re- 
lation to  those  rights,  in  the  same  position  as  the  child  does 
to  the  whole  of  nature,  and  the  celebrated  adage  may  then  be 
applied  to  them,  Homo  puer  robustus.  This  truth  may  even 
be  perceived  in  America.  The  States  in  which  the  citizens  have 
enjoyed  their  rights  longest  are  those  in  which  they  make  the 
best  use  of  them. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


•51 


It  cannot  be  repeated  too  often  that  nothing  is  more  fertile  in 
prodigies  than  the  art  of  being  free ;  but  there  is  nothing  more 
arduous  than  the  apprenticeship  of  liberty.  Such  is  not  the 
case  with  despotic  institutions:  despotism  often  promises  to 
make  amends  for  a  thousand  previous  ills ;  it  supports  the  right, 
it  protects  the  oppressed,  and  it  maintains  public  order.  The 
nation  is  lulled  by  the  temporary  prosperity  which  accrues  to 
it,  until  it  is  roused  to  a  sense  of  its  own  misery.  Liberty,  on 
the  contrary,  is  generally  established  in  the  midst  of  agitation, 
it  is  perfected  by  civil  discord,  and  its  benefits  cannot  be  ap- 
preciated until  it  is  already  old. 


.  (•' 


Respect  for  the  Law  in  the  United  States 

Respect  of  the  Americans  for  the  law — Parental  affection  which  they 
entertain  for  it — Personal  interest  of  everyone  to  increase  the  au- 
thority of  the  law. 

It  is  not  always  feasible  to  consult  the  whole  people,  either 
directly  or  indirectly,  in  the  formation  of  the  law ;  but  it  can- 
not be  denied  that,  when  such  a  measure  is  possible  the 
authority  of  the  law  is  very  much  augmented.  This  popular  or- 
igin, which  impairs  the  excellence  and  the  wisdom  of  legisla- 
tion, contributes  prodigiously  to  increase  its  power.  There  is 
an  amazing  strength  in  the  expression  of  the  determination  of 
a  whole  people,  and  when  it  declares  itself  the  imagination  of 
those  who  are  most  inclined  to  contest  it  is  overawed  by  its 
authority.  The  truth  of  this  fact  is  very  well  known  by  par- 
ties, and  they  consequently  strive  to  make  out  a  majority  when- 
ever they  can.  If  they  have  not  the  greater  number  of  voters 
on  their  side,  they  assert  that  the  true  majority  abstained  from 
voting;  and  if  they  are  foiled  even  there,  they  have  recourse 
to  the  body  of  those  persons  who  had  no  votes  to  give. 

In  the  United  States,  except  slaves,  servants,  and  paupers  in 
the  receipt  of  relief  from  the  townships,  there  is  no  class  of  per- 
sons who  do  not  exercise  the  elective  franchise,  and  who  do 
not  indirectly  contribute  to  make  the  laws.  Those  who  design 
to  attack  the  laws  must  consequently  either  modify  the  opinion 
of  the  nation  or  trample  upon  its  decision. 

A  second  reason,  which  is  still  more  weighty,  may  be  further 
adduced ;  in  the  United  States  everyone  is  personally  interested 
in  enforcing  the  obedience  of  the  whole  community  to  the  law ; 


i\ 


tiA4i0Mtm^tA'je*»i 


*^^'Yiiir  iiiimf-ini>iiiirtBi#iB-'iii  i  ■im  m 


859 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


! ; 


ii 


I      i 


for  as  the  minority  may  shortly  rally  the  majority  to  its  prin- 
ciples, it  is  interested  in  professing  that  respect  for  the  decrees 
of  the  legislator  which  it  may  soon  have  occasion  to  claim  for 
its  own.  However  irksome  an  enactment  may  be,  the  citizen 
of  the  United  States  complies  with  it,  not  only  because  it  is  the 
work  of  the  majority,  but  because  it  originates  in  his  own  au- 
thority, and  he  regards  it  as  a  contract  to  which  he  is  himself 
a  party. 

In  the  United  States,  then,  that  numerous  and  turbulent  mul- 
titude does  not  exist  which  always  looks  upon  the  law  as  its 
natural  enemy,  and  accordingly  surveys  it  with  fear  and  with 
distrust.  It  is  impossible,  on  the  other  hand,  not  to  perceive 
that  all  classes  display  the  utmost  reliance  upon  the  legislation 
of  their  country,  and  that  they  are  attached  to  it  by  a  kmd  of 
parental  affection. 

I  am  wrong,  however,  in  saying  all  classes ;  for  as  in  America 
the  European  scale  of  authority  is  inverted,  the  wealthy  are 
there  placed  in  a  position  analogous  to  that  of  the  poor  in  the 
Old  World,  and  it  is  the  opulent  classes  which  frequently  look 
upon  the  law  with  suspicion.  I  have  already  observed  that  the 
advantage  of  democracy  is  not,  as  has  been  sometimes  asserted, 
that  it  protects  the  interests  of  the  whole  community,  but  sim- 
ply that  it  protects  those  of  the  majority.  In  the  United  States, 
where  the  poor  rule,  the  rich  have  always  some  reason  to  dread 
the  abuses  of  their  power.  This  natural  anxiety  of  the  rich 
may  produce  a  sullen  dissatisfaction,  but  society  is  not  disturbed 
by  it ;  for  the  same  reason  which  induces  the  rich  to  withhold 
their  confidence  in  the  legislative  authority  makes  them  obey 
its  mandates ;  their  wealth,  which  prevents  them  from  making 
the  law,  prevents  them  from  withstanding  it.  Amongst  civil- 
ized nations  revolts  are  rarely  excited,  except  by  such  persons 
as  have  nothing  to  lose  by  them  ;  and  if  the  laws  of  a  democracy 
are  not  always  worthy  of  respect,  at  least  they  always  obtain  it ; 
for  those  who  usually  infringe  the  laws  have  no  excuse  for  not 
complying  with  the  enactments  they  have  themselves  made, 
and  by  which  they  are  themselves  benefited,  whilst  the  citi- 
zens whose  interests  might  be  promoted  by  the  infraction  of 
them  are  induced,  by  their  character  and  their  stations,  to  sub- 
mit to  the  decisions  of  the  legislature,  whatever  they  may  be. 
Besides  which,  the  people  in  America  obeys  the  law  not  only 
because  it  emanates  from  the  popular  authority,  but  because 


^ 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


353 


that  authority  may  modify  it  in  any  points  which  may  prove 
vexatory ;  a  law  is  observed  because  it  is  a  self-imposed  evil  in 
the  first  place,  and  an  evil  of  transient  duration  in  the  second. 


Activity  which  Pervades  all  the  Branches  op  the 
Body  Politic  in  the  United  States;  Influencic  which 
IT  Exercises  upon  Society 

More  difficult  to  conceive  the  political  activity  which  pervades  the 
United  States  than  the  freedom  and  equality  which  reign  there — 
The  great  activity  which  perpetually  agitates  the  legislative  bodies 
is  only  an  episode  to  the  general  activity — Difficult  for  an  American 
to  confine  himself  to  his  own  business — Political  agitation  extends 
to  all  social  intercourse — Commercial  activity  of  the  Americans 
partly  attributable  to  this  cause — Indirect  advantages  which  society 
derives  from  a  democrati':  government. 

On  passing  from  a  country  in  which  free  institutions  are  es- 
tablished to  one  where  they  do  not  exist,  the  traveller  is  struck 
by  the  change ;  in  the  former  all  is  bustle  and  activity,  in  the 
latter  everything  is  calm  and  motionless.  In  the  one,  amelio- 
ration and  progress  are  the  general  topics  of  inquiry ;  in  the 
other,  it  seems  as  if  the  community  only  aspired  to  repose  in 
the  enjoyment  of  the  advantages  which  it  has  acquired. 
Nevertheless,  the  country  which  exerts  itself  so  strenuously  to 
promote  its  welfare  is  generally  more  wealthy  and  more  pros- 
perous than  that  which  appears  to  be  so  contented  with  its  lot ; 
and  when  we  compare  them  together,  we  can  scarcely  conceive 
how  so  many  new  wants  are  daily  felt  in  the  former,  whilst  so 
few  seem  to  occur  in  the  latter. 

If  this  remark  is  applicable  to  those  free  countries  in  which 
monarchical  and  aristocratic  institutions  subsist,  it  is  still  more 
striking  with  regard  to  democratic  republics.  In  these  States 
it  is  not  only  a  portion  of  the  people  which  is  busied  with  the 
amelioration  of  its  social  condition,  but  the  whole  community 
is  engaged  in  the  task ;  and  it  is  not  the  exigencies  and  the  con- 
venience of  a  single  class  for  which  a  provision  is  to  be  made, 
but  the  exigencies  and  the  convenience  of  all  ranks  of  life. 

It  is  not  impossible  to  conceive  the  surpassing  liberty  which 
the  Americans  enjoy ;  some  idea  may  likewise  be  formed  of  the 
extreme  equality  which  subsists  amongst  them,  but  the  political 
activity  which  pervades  the  United  States  must  be  seen  in  order 
to  be  understood.  No  sooner  do  you  set  foot  upon  the  Amer- 


1  >j 


a 


li 


"rr- 


I 


'54 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


I   *r   i 


i 


>  i 


ican  soil  than  you  are  stunned  by  a  kind  of  tumult ;  a  confused 
clamor  is  heard  on  every  side;  and  a  thousand  simultaneous 
voices  demand  the  immediate  satisfaction  of  their  social  wants. 
Everything  is  in  motion  around  you ;  here,  the  people  of  one 
quarter  of  a  town  are  met  to  decide  upon  the  building  of  a 
church ;  there,  the  election  of  a  representative  is  going  on ;  a 
little  further  the  delegates  of  a  district  arc  posting  to  the  town 
in  order  to  consult  upon  some  local  improvements ;  or  in  an- 
other place  the  laborers  of  a  village  quit  their  ploughs  to  delib- 
erate upon  the  project  of  a  road  or  a  public  school.  Meetings 
are  called  for  the  sole  purpose  of  declaring  their  disapprobation 
of  the  line  of  conduct  pursued  by  the  Government ;  whilst  in 
other  assemblies  the  citizens  salute  the  authorities  of  the  day  as 
the  fathers  of  their  country.  Societies  are  formed  which  regard 
drunkenness  as  the  principal  cause  of  the  evils  under  which  the 
State  labors,  and  which  solemnly  bind  themselves  to  give  a 
constant  example  of  temperance.? 

The  great  political  agitation  of  the  American  legislative 
bodies,  which  is  the  only  kind  of  excitement  that  attracts  the 
attention  of  foreign  countries,  is  a  mere  episode  or  a  sort  of 
continuation  of  that  universal  movement  which  originates  in 
the  lowest  classes  of  the  people  and  extends  successively  to  all 
the  ranks  of  society.  It  is  impossible  to  spend  more  efforts  in 
the  pursuit  of  enjoyment. 

The  cares  of  political  life  engross  a  most  prominent  place  in 
the  occupation  of  a  citizen  in  the  United  States,  and  almost  the 
only  pleasure  of  which  an  American  has  any  idea  is  to  take  a 
part  in  the  Government,  and  to  discuss  the  part  he  has  taken. 
This  feeling  pervades  the  most  trifling  habits  of  life ;  even  the 
women  frequently  attend  public  meetings  and  listen  to  political 
harangues  as  a  recreation  after  their  household  labors.  De- 
bating clubs  are  to  a  certain  extent  a  substitute  for  theatrical 
entertainments  :•  an  American  cannot  converse,  but  he  can  dis- 
cuss ;  and  when  he  attempts  to  talk  he  falls  into  a  dissertation. 
He  speaks  to  you  as  if  he  was  addressing  a  meeting ;  and  if  he 
should  chance  to  warm  in  the  course  of  the  discussion,  he  will 
infallibly  say,  "  Gentlemen,"  to  the  person  with  whom  he  is 
conversing. 


c  At  the  time  of  my  stay  in  the 
United  States  the  temperance  societies 
already  consisted  of  more  than  270,000 
members,  and  their  eScU  had  been  to 


diminish  the  consumption  of  fermented 
liquors  by  $00,000  f^allons  per  annum  in 
the  State  of  Pennsylvania  alone. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


255 


In  some  countries  the  inhabitants  display  a  certain  repug- 
nance to  avail  themselves  of  the  political  privileges  with  which 
the  law  invests  them ;  it  would  seem  that  they  set  too  high  a 
value  upon  their  time  to  spend  it  on  the  interests  of  the  com- 
munity ;  and  they  prefer  to  withdraw  within  the  exact  limits 
of  a  wholesome  egotism,  marked  out  by  four  sunk  fences  and 
a  quickset  hedge.  But  if  an  American  were  condemned  to  con- 
fme  his  activity  to  his  own  affairs,  he  would  be  robbed  of  one- 
half  of  his  existence ;  he  would  feel  an  immense  void  in  the  life 
which  he  is  accustomed  to  lead,  and  his  wretchedness  would  be 
unbearable.^  I  am  persuaded  that,  if  ever  a  despotic  govern- 
ment is  established  in  America,  it  will  find  it  more  difficult  to 
surmount  the  habits  which  free  institutions  have  engendered 
than  to  conquer  the  attachment  of  the  citizens  to  freedom. 

This  ceaseless  agitation  which  democratic  government  has 
introduced  into  the  political  world  influences  all  social  inter- 
course. I  am  not  sure  that  upon  the  whole  this  is  not  the  great- 
est advantage  of  democracy.  And  I  am  much  less  inclined  to 
applaud  it  for  what  it  does  than  for  what  it  causes  to  be  done. 

It  is  incontestable  that  the  people  frequently  conducts  public 
business  very  ill ;  but  it  is  impossible  that  the  lower  orders 
should  take  a  part  in  public  business  without  extending  the 
circle  of  their  ideas,  and  without  quitting  the  ordinary  routine 
of  their  mental  acquirements.  The  humblest  individual  who 
is  called  upon  to  co-operate  in  the  government  of  society  ac- 
quires a  certain  degree  of  self-respect ;  and  as  he  possesses  au- 
thority, he  can  command  the  services  of  minds  much  more  en- 
lightened than  his  own.  He  is  canvassed  by  a  multitude  of 
applicants,  who  seek  to  deceive  him  in  a  thousand  different 
ways,  but  who  instruct  him  by  their  deceit.  He  takes  a  part 
in  political  undertakings  which  did  not  originate  in  his  own 
conception,  but  which  give  him  a  taste  for  undertakings  of  the 
kind.  New  ameliorations  are  daily  pointed  out  in  the  prop- 
erty which  he  holds  in  common  with  others,  and  this  gives  him 
the  desire  of  improving  that  property  which  is  more  peculiarly 
his  own.  He  is  perhaps  neither  happier  nor  better  than  those 
who  came  before  him,  but  he  is  better  informed  and  more 
active.     I  have  no  doubt  that  the  democratic  institutions  of  the 


I 


a 


rfThe  same  remark  was  made  at 
Rome  under  the  first  Cxsars.  Montes- 
quieu somewhere  alludes  to  the  exces- 
sive despondency  of  certain  Roman  cit- 


izens who,  after  the  excitement  of  polit- 
ical life,  were  all  at  once  flung  back  into 
the  stagnation  of  private  life. 


/i 


u 


fin" 


'  !  ( 


I".  M 


256 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


United  States,  joined  to  the  physical  constitution  of  the  coun- 
try, are  the  cause  (not  the  direct,  as  is  so  often  asserted,  but  the 
indirect  cause)  of  the  prodigious  commercial  activity  of  the 
inhabitants.  It  is  not  engendered  by  the  laws,  but  the  people 
learns  how  to  promote  it  by  the  experience  derived  from  legis- 
lation. 

When  the  opponents  of  democracy  assert  that  a  single  indi- 
vidual performs  the  duties  which  he  undertakes  much  better 
than  the  government  of  the  community,  it  appears  to  me  that 
they  are  perfectly  right.  The  government  of  an  individual, 
supposing  an  equality  of  instruction  on  either  side,  is  more  con- 
sistent, more  persevering,  and  more  accurate  than  that  of  a 
multitude,  and  it  is  much  better  qualified  judiciously  to  dis- 
criminate the  characters  of  the  men  it  employs.  If  any  deny 
what  I  advance,  they  have  certainly  never  seen  a  democratic 
government,  or  have  formed  their  opinion  upon  very  partial 
evidence.  It  is  true  that  even  when  local  circumstances  and  the 
disposition  of  the  people  allow  democratic  institutions  to  sub- 
sist, they  never  display  a  regular  and  methodical  system  of 
government.  Democratic  liberty  is  far  from  accomplishing  all 
the  projects  it  undertakes,  with  the  skill  of  an  adroit  despotism. 
It  frequently  abandons  them  before  they  have  borne  their  fruits, 
or  risks  them  when  the  consequences  may  prove  dangerous; 
but  in  the  end  it  produces  more  than  any  absolute  government, 
and  if  it  do  fewer  things  well,  it  does  a  greater  number  of  things. 
Under  its  sway  the  transactions  of  the  public  administration  are 
not  nearly  so  important  as  what  is  done  by  private  exertion. 
Democracy  does  not  confer  the  most  skilful  kind  of  govern- 
ment upon  the  people,  but  it  produces  that  which  the  most 
skilful  governments  are  frequently  unable  to  awaken,  namely, 
an  all-pervading  and  restless  activity,  a  superabundant  force, 
and  an  energy  which  is  inseparable  from  it,  and  which  may,  un- 
der favorable  circumstances,  beget  the  most  amazing  benefits. 
These  are  the  true  advantages  of  democracy. 

In  the  present  age,  when  the  destinies  of  Christendom  seem 
to  be  in  suspense,  some  hasten  to  assail  democracy  as  its  foe 
whilst  it  is  yet  in  its  early  growth ;  and  others  are  ready  with 
their  vows  of  adoration  for  this  new  deity  which  is  springing 
forth  from  chaos:  but  both  parties  are  very  imperfectly  ac- 
quainted with  the  object  of  their  hatred  or  of  their  desires ;  they 
strike  in  the  dark,  and  distribute  their  blows  by  mere  chance. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


«S7 


We  must  first  understand  what  the  purport  of  society  and  the 
aim  of  government  is  held  to  be.  If  it  be  your  intention  to 
confer  a  certain  elevation  upon  the  human  mind,  and  to  teach 
it  to  regard  the  things  of  this  world  with  generous  feelings,  to 
inspire  men  with  a  scorn  of  mere  temporal  advantage,  to  give 
birth  to  living  convictions,  and  to  keep  alive  the  spirit  of  honor- 
able devotedness ;  if  you  hold  it  to  be  a  good  thing  to  refine 
the  habits,  to  embellish  the  manners,  to  cultivate  the  arts  of  a 
nation,  and  to  promote  the  love  of  poetry,  of  beauty,  and  of 
renown;  if  you  would  constitute  a  people  not  unfitted  to  act 
with  power  upon  all  other  nations,  nor  unprepared  for  those 
high  enterprises  which,  whatever  be  the  result  of  its  efforts,  will 
leave  a  name  forever  famous  in  time — if  you  believe  such  to  be 
the  principal  object  of  society,  you  must  avoid  the  government 
of  democracy,  which  would  be  a  very  uncertain  guide  to  the 
end  you  have  in  view. 

But  if  you  hold  it  to  be  expedient  to  divert  the  moral  and 
intellectual  activity  of  man  to  the  production  of  comfort,  and 
to  the  acquirement  of  the  necessaries  of  life ;  if  a  clear  under- 
standing be  more  profitable  to  man  than  genius ;  if  your  object 
be  not  to  stimulate  the  virtues  of  heroism,  but  to  create  habits 
of  peace ;  if  you  had  rather  witness  vices  than  crimes  and  are 
content  to  meet  with  fewer  noble  deeds,  provided  offences  be 
diminished  in  the  same  proportion ;  if,  instead  of  living  in  the 
midst  of  a  brilliant  state  of  society,  you  are  contented  to  have 
prosperity  around  you ;  if,  in  short,  you  are  of  opinion  that  the 
principal  object  of  a  Government  is  not  to  confer  the  greatest 
possible  share  of  power  and  of  glory  upon  the  body  of  the  na- 
tion, but  to  ensure  the  greatest  degree  of  enjoyment  and  the 
least  degree  of  misery  to  each  of  the  individuals  who  compose 
it — if  such  be  your  desires,  you  can  have  no  surer  means  of 
satisfying  them  than  by  equalizing  the  conditions  of  men,  and 
establishing  democratic  institutions. 

But  if  the  time  be  passed  at  which  such  a  choice  was  possible, 
and  if  some  superhuman  power  impel  us  towards  one  or  the 
other  of  these  two  governments  without  consulting  our  wishes, 
let  us  at  least  endeavor  to  make  the  best  of  that  which  is  allotted 
to  us ;  and  let  us  so  inquire  into  its  good  and  its  evil  propen- 
sities as  to  be  able  to  foster  the  former  and  repress  the  latter  to 
the  utmost. 

Vol.  I.— 17 


r; 


•'si 


I 


CHAPTER  XV 


i' 


UNLIMITED  POWER  OF  THE  MAJORITY  IN  THE  UNITED 
STATES,  AND  ITS  CONSEQUENCES 

Natural  strength  of  the  majority  in  democracies  —Most  of  the  Ameri- 
can Constitutions  have  increased  this  strength  by  artificial  means — 
How  this  has  been  done — Pledged  delegates — Moral  power  of  the 
majority — Opinion  as  to  its  infallibility — Respect  for  its  rights,  how 
augmented  in  the  United  States. 

THE  very  essence  of  democratic  government  consists  in 
the  absolute  sovereignty  of  the  majority;  for  there  is 
nothing  in  democratic  States  which  is  capable  of  re- 
sisting it.  Most  of  the  American  Constitutions  have  sought 
to  increase  this  natural  strength  of  the  majority  by  artificial 
means.o 

The  legislature  is,  of  all  political  institutions,  the  one  which 
is  most  easily  swayed  by  the  wishes  of  the  majority.  The 
Americans  determined  that  the  members  of  the  legislature 
should  be  elected  by  the  people  immediately,  and  for  a  very 
brief  term,  in  order  to  subject  them,  not  only  to  the  general 
convictions,  but  even  to  the  daily  passions,  of  their  constitu- 
ents. The  members  of  both  houses  are  taken  from  the  same 
class  in  society,  and  are  nominated  in  the  same  manner ;  so  that 
the  modifications  of  the  legislative  bodies  are  almost  as  rapid 
and  quite  as  irresistible  as  those  of  a  single  assembly.  It  is  to 
a  legislature  thus  constituted  that  almost  all  the  authority  of 
the  government  has  been  entrusted. 

But  whilst  the  law  increased  the  strength  of  those  authorities 
which  of  themselves  were  strong,  it  enfeebled  more  and  more 
those  which  were  naturally  weak.  It  deprived  the  represent- 
atives of  the  executive  of  all  stability  and  independence,  and 


a  We  observed,  in  examining  the 
Federal  Constitution,  that  the  eflForts 
r '  the  legislators  of  the  Union  had  been 
'  metrically  opposed  to  the  present 
t  .dency.  The  consequence  has  been 
that  the  Federal  Government  is  more 
independent  in  its  sphere  than  that  of 


the  States.  But  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment scarcely  ever  interferes  in  any 
but  external  affairs;  and  the  govern- 
ments of  the  States  are  in  reality  the 
authorities  which  direct  society  in 
America. 


258 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


259 


Govern- 
in    any 
govern- 
iafity  the 
iciety    in 


by  subjecting  them  completely  to  the  caprices  of  the  legislature, 
it  robbed  them  of  the  slender  influence  which  the  nature  of  a 
democratic  government  might  have  allowed  them  to  retain. 
In  several  States  the  judicial  power  was  also  submitted  to  the 
elective  discretion  of  the  majority,  and  in  all  of  them  its  exist- 
ence was  made  to  depend  on  the  pleasure  of  the  legislative 
authority,  since  the  representatives  were  empowered  annually 
to  regulate  the  stipend  of  the  judges. 

Custom,  however,  has  done  even  more  than  law.  A  proceed- 
ing which  will  in  the  end  set  all  the  guarantees  of  representative 
government  at  naught  is  becoming  more  and  more  general  in 
the  United  States ;  it  frequently  happens  that  the  electors,  who 
choose  a  delegate,  point  out  a  certain  line  of  conduct  to  him, 
and  impose  upon  him  a  certain  number  of  positive  obligations 
which  he  is  pledged  to  fulfil.  With  the  exception  of  the  tu- 
mult, this  comes  to  the  same  thing  as  if  the  majority  of  the 
populace  held  its  deliberations  in  the  market-place. 

Several  other  circumstances  concur  in  rendering  the  power 
of  the  majority  in  America  not  only  preponderant,  but  irre- 
sistible. The  moral  authority  of  the  majority  is  partly  based 
upon  the  notion  that  there  is  more  intelligence  and  more  wis- 
dom in  a  great  number  of  men  collected  together  than  in  a 
single  individual,  and  that  the  quantity  of  legislators  is  more 
important  than  their  quality.  The  theory  of  equality  is  in  fact 
applied  to  the  intellect  of  man :  and  human  pride  is  thus  assailed 
in  its  last  retreat  by  a  doctrine  which  the  minority  hesitate  to 
admit,  and  in  which  they  very  slowly  concur.  Like  all  other 
powers,  and  perhaps  more  than  all  other  powers,  the  authority 
of  the  many  requires  the  sanction  of  time ;  at  first  it  enforces 
obedience  by  constraint,  but  its  laws  are  not  respected  until  they 
have  long  been  maintained. 

The  right  of  governing  society,  which  the  majority  supposes 
itself  to  derive  from  its  superior  intelligence,  was  introduced 
into  the  United  States  by  the  first  settlers,  and  this  idea,  which 
would  be  sufficient  of  itself  to  create  a  free  nation,  has  now 
been  amalgamated  with  the  manners  of  the  people  and  the 
minor  incidents  of  social  intercourse. 

The  French,  under  the  old  monarchy,  held  it  for  a  maxim 
(which  is  still  a  fundamental  principle  of  the  English  Consti- 
tution) that  the  King  could  do  no  wrong;  and  if  he  did  do 
wrong,  the  blame  was  imputed  to  his  advisers.    This  notion 


m 


1 


.1  r 


!       i 


!■■■    / 

il.  i 


m 


m 


260 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


was  highly  favorable  to  habits  of  obedience,  and  it  enabled  the 
subject  to  complain  of  the  law  without  ceasing  to  love  and 
honor  the  lawgiver.  The  Americans  entertain  the  same  opin- 
ion with  respect  to  the  majority. 

The  moral  power  of  the  majority  is  founded  upon  yet  an- 
other principle,  which  is,  that  the  interests  of  the  many  are  to 
be  preferred  to  those  of  the  few.  It  will  readily  be  perceived 
that  the  respect  here  professed  for  the  rights  of  the  majority 
must  naturally  increase  or  diminish  according  to  the  state  of 
parties.  When  a  nation  is  divided  into  several  irreconcilable 
factions,  the  privilege  of  the  majority  is  often  overlooked,  be- 
cause it  is  intolerable  to  comply  with  its  demands. 

If  there  existed  in  America  a  class  of  citizens  whom  the  leg- 
islating majority  sought  to  deprive  of  exclusive  privileges 
which  they  had  possessed  for  ages,  and  to  bring  down  from 
an  elevated  station  to  the  level  of  the  ranks  of  the  multitude, 
it  is  probable  that  the  minority  would  be  less  ready  to  comply 
with  its  laws.  But  as  the  United  States  were  colonized  by 
men  holding  equal  rank  amongst  themselves,  there  is  as  yet 
no  natural  or  permanent  source  of  dissension  between  the  in- 
terests of  its  different  inhabitants.  ; 

There  are  certain  communities  in  which  the  persons  who 
constitute  the  minority  can  never  hope  to  draw  over  the  ma- 
jority to  their  side,  because  they  must  then  give  up  the  very 
point  which  is  at  issue  between  them.  Thus,  an  aristocracy 
can  never  become  a  majority  whilst  it  retains  its  exclusive 
privileges,  and  it  cannot  cede  its  privileges  without  ceasing  to 
be  an  aristocracy. 

In  the  United  States  political  questions  cannot  be  taken  up 
in  so  general  and  absolute  a  manner,  and  all  parties  are  willing 
to  recognize  the  rights  of  the  majority,  because  they  all  hope 
to  turn  those  rights  to  their  own  advantage  at  some  future 
time.  The  majority  therefore  in  that  country  exercises  a  pro- 
digious actual  authority,  and  a  moral  influence  which  is  scarce- 
ly less  preponderant ;  no  obstacles  exist  which  can  impede  or 
so  much  as  retard  its  progress,  or  which  can  induce  it  to  heed 
the  complaints  of  those  whom  it  crushes  upon  its  path.  This 
state  of  things  is  fatal  in  itself  and  dangerous  for  the  future. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


a6i 


How  THE  UwyMITED  PoWER  OF  THE  MAJORITY   INCREASES 

IN  America  the  Instability  op  Legislation  and  Ad- 
ministration Inherent  in  Democracy 

The  Americans  increase  the  mutability  of  the  laws  which  is  inherent  in 
democracy  by  changing  the  legislature  every  year,  and  by  investing 
it  with  unbounded  authority — The  same  effect  is  produced  upon  the 
administration — In  America  social  amelioration  is  conducted  more 
energetically  but  less  perseveringly  than  in  Europe. 

I  have  already  spoken  of  the  natural  defects  of  democratic 
institutions,  and  they  all  of  them  increase  at  the  exact  ratio  of 
the  power  of  the  majority.  To  begin  with  the  most  evident 
of  them  all;  the  mutability  of  the  laws  is  an  evil  inherent  in 
democratic  government,  because  it  is  natural  to  democracies 
to  raise  men  to  power  in  very  rapid  succession.  But  this  evil 
is  more  or  less  sensible  in  proportion  to  the  authority  and  the 
means  of  action  which  the  legislature  possesses. 

In  America  the  authority  exercised  by  the  legislative  bodies 
is  supreme ;  nothing  prevents  them  from  accomplishing  their 
wishes  with  celerity,  and  with  irrtsistible  power,  whilst  they 
are  supplied  by  new  representatives  every  year.  That  is  to  say, 
the  circumstances  which  contribute  most  powerfully  to  demo- 
cratic instability,  and  which  admit  of  the  free  application  of 
caprice  to  every  object  in  the  State,  are  here  in  full  operation. 
In  conformity  with  this  principle,  America  is,  at  the  present 
day,  the  country  in  the  world  where  laws  last  the  shortest  time. 
Almost  all  the  American  constitutions  have  been  amended  with- 
in the  course  of  thirty  years:  there  is  therefore  not  a  single 
American  State  which  has  not  modified  the  principles  of  its 
legislation  in  that  lapse  of  time.  As  for  the  laws  themselves, 
a  single  glance  upon  the  archives  of  the  different  States  of  the 
Union  suffices  to  convince  one  that  in  America  the  activity  of 
the  legislator  never  slackens.  Not  that  the  American  de- 
mocracy is  naturally  less  stable  than  any  other,  but  that  it  is 
allowed  to  follow  its  capricious  propensities  in  the  formation 
of  the  laws.** 


if 


b  The  legislative  acts  promulgated  by 
the  State  of  Massachusetts  alone,  from 
the  year  1780  to  the  present  time,  al- 
ready fill  three  stout  volumes;  and  it 
must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  collection 
to  which  I  allude  was  published  in  1R23, 
when  many  old  laws  which  had  fallen 


into  disuse  were  omitted.  The  State 
of  Massachusetts,  which  is  not  more 
populous  than  a  department  of  France, 
may  be  considered  as  the  most  stable, 
the  most  consistent,  and  the  most  sa- 
gacious in  its  undertakings  of  the  whole 
Union. 


/I 


'1^: 


263 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


The  omnipotence  of  the  majority,  and  the  rapid  as  well  as 
absolute  manner  in  which  its  decisions  are  executed  in  the 
United  States,  has  not  only  the  effect  of  rendering  the  law  un- 
stable, but  it  exercises  the  same  influence  upon  the  execution 
of  the  law  and  the  conduct  of  the  public  administration.  As 
the  majority  is  the  only  power  which  it  is  important  to  court, 
all  its  projects  are  taken  up  with  the  greatest  ardor,  but  no 
sooner  is  its  attention  distracted  than  all  this  ardor  ceases; 
whilst  in  the  free  States  of  Europe  the  administration  is  at  once 
independent  and  secure,  so  that  the  projects  of  the  legislature 
are  put  into  execution,  although  its  immediate  attention  may 
be  directed  to  other  objects. 

In  America  certain  ameliorations  are  undertaken  with  much 
more  zeal  and  activity  than  elsewhere;  in  Europe  the  same 
ends  are  promoted  by  much  less  social  effort,  more  continuous- 
ly applied. 

Some  years  ago  several  pious  individuals  undertook  to 
ameliorate  the  condition  of  the  prisons.  The  public  was  ex- 
cited by  the  statements  which  they  put  forward,  and  the  re- 
generation of  criminals  became  a  very  popular  undertaking. 
New  prisons  were  built,  and  for  the  first  time  the  idea  of  re- 
forming as  well  as  of  punishing  the  delinquent  formed  a  part 
of  prison  discipline.  But  this  happy  alteration,  in  which  the 
public  had  taken  so  hearty  an  interest,  and  which  the  exertions 
of  the  citizens  had  irresistibly  accelerated,  could  not  be  com- 
pleted in  a  moment.  Whilst  the  new  penitentiaries  were  being 
erected  (and  it  was  the  pleasure  of  the  majority  that  they  should 
be  terminated  with  all  possible  celerity),  the  old  prisons  existed, 
which  still  contained  a  great  number  of  offenders.  These  jails 
became  more  unwholesome  and  more  corrupt  in  proportion  as 
the  new  establishments  were  beautified  and  improved,  forming 
a  contrast  which  may  readily  be  understood.  The  majority 
was  so  eagerly  employed  in  founding  the  new  prisons  that  those 
which  already  existed  were  forgotten ;  and  as  the  general  at- 
tention was  diverted  to  a  novel  object,  the  care  which  had 
hitherto  been  bestowed  upon  the  others  ceased.  The  salutary 
regulations  of  discipline  were  first  relaxed,  and  afterwards 
broken;  so  that  in  the  immediate  neighborhood  of  a  prison 
which  bore  witness  to  the  mild  and  enlightened  spirit  of  our 
time,  dungeons  might  be  met  with  which  reminded  the  visitor 
of  the  barbarity  of  the  Middle  Ages. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


263 


Tyranny  of  the  Majority 

How  the  principle  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  is  to  be  understood 
— Impossibility  of  conceiving  a  mixed  government — The  sovereign 
power  must  centre  somewhere — Precautions  to  be  taken  to  control 
its  action — These  precautions  have  not  been  taken  in  the  United 
States — Consequences. 

I  hold  it  to  be  an  impious  and  an  execrable  maxim  that,  po- 
litically speaking,  a  people  has  a  right  to  do  whatsoever  it 
pleases,  and  yet  I  have  asserted  that  all  authority  originates  in 
the  will  of  the  majority.  Am  I  then,  in  contradiction  with 
myself? 

A  general  law — which  bears  the  name  of  Justice — has  been 
made  and  sanctioned,  not  only  by  a  majority  of  this  or  that 
people,  but  by  a  majority  of  mankind.  The  rights  of  every 
people  are  consequently  confined  within  the  limits  of  what  is 
just.  A  nation  may  be  considered  in  the  light  of  a  jury  which 
is  empowered  to  represent  society  at  large,  and  to  apply  the 
great  and  general  law  of  justice.  Ought  such  a  jury,  which 
represents  society,  to  have  more  power  than  the  society  in 
which  the  laws  it  applies  originate  ? 

When  I  refuse  to  obey  an  unjust  law,  I  do  not  contest  the 
right  which  the  majority  has  of  commanding,  but  I  simply 
appeal  from  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  to  the  sovereigntj* 
of  mankind.  It  has  been  asserted  that  a  people  can  never  en- 
tirely outstep  the  boundaries  of  justice  and  of  reason  in  those 
affairs  which  are  more  peculiarly  its  own,  and  that  consequently 
full  power  may  fearlessly  be  given  to  the  majority  by  which  it 
is  represented.    But  this  language  is  that  of  a  slave. 

A  majority  taken  collectively  may  be  regarded  as  a  being 
whose  opinions,  and  most  frequently  whose  interests,  are  op- 
posed to  those  of  another  being,  which  is  styled  a  minority. 
If  it  be  admitted  that  a  man,  possessing  absolute  power,  may 
misuse  that  power  by  wronging  his  adversaries,  why  should  a 
majority  not  be  liable  to  the  same  reproach?  Men  are  not 
apt  to  change  their  characters  by  agglomeration ;  nor  does  their 
patience  in  the  presence  of  obstacles  increase  with  the  con- 
sciousness of  their  strength.^    And  for  these  reasons  I  can 


e  No  one  will  assert  that  a  people  can- 
not forcibly  wrong  another  people;  but 
parties  may  be  looked  upon  as  lesser 
nations  within  a  greater  one,  and  they 
are  aliens  to  each  other:  if,  therefore,  it 


be  admitted  that  a  nation  can  act  tyran- 
nically towards  another  nation,  it  can- 
not be  denied  that  a  party  may  do  the 
same  towards  another  party. 


m 


m 


. 


I  I' 


!      < 


\f..  ( 


^•! 


!  i 


m 


!.," 


iH) 


964 


D^  TOCQUEVILLE 


never  willingly  invest  any  number  of  my  fellow-creatures  with 
that  unlimited  authority  which  I  should  refuse  to  any  one  of 
them. 

I  do  not  think  that  it  is  possible  to  combine  several  prin- 
ciples in  the  same  government,  so  as  at  the  same  time  to  main- 
tain freedom,  and  really  to  oppose  them  to  one  another.  The 
form  of  government  which  is  usually  termed  mixed  has  always 
appeared  to  me  to  be  a  mere  chimera.  Accurately  speaking 
there  is  no  such  thing  as  a  mixed  government  (with  the  mean- 
ing usually  given  to  that  word),  because  in  all  communities 
some  one  principle  of  action  may  be  discovered  which  pre- 
ponderates over  the  others.  England  in  the  last  century,  which 
has  been  more  especially  cited  as  an  example  of  this  form  of 
Government,  was  in  point  of  fact  an  essentially  aristocratic 
State,  although  it  comprised  very  powerful  elements  of  democ- 
racy ;  for  the  laws  and  customs  of  the  country  were  such  that 
the  aristocracy  could  not  but  preponderate  in  the  end,  and  sub- 
ject the  direction  of  public  affairs  to  its  own  will.  The  error 
arose  from  too  much  attention  being  paid  to  the  actual  strug- 
gle which  was  going  on  between  the  nobles  and  the  people, 
without  considering  the  probable  issue  of  the  contest,  which 
was  in  reality  the  important  point.  When  a  community  really 
has  a  mixed  government,  that  is  to  say,  when  it  is  equally  di- 
vided between  two  adverse  principles,  it  must  either  pass 
through  a  revolution  or  fall  into  complete  dissolution. 

I  am  therefore  of  opinion  that  some  one  social  power  must 
always  be  made  to  predommate  over  the  others ;  but  I  think 
that  liberty  is  endangered  when  this  power  is  checked  by  no  ob- 
stacles which  may  retard  its  course,  and  force  it  to  moderate 
its  own  vehemence. 

Unlimited  power  is  in  itself  a  bad  and  dangerous  thing; 
human  beings  are  not  competent  to  exercise  it  with  discretion, 
and  God  alone  can  be  omnipotent,  because  His  wisdom  and 
His  justice  are  always  equal  to  His  power.  But  no  power  upon 
earth  is  so  worthy  of  honor  for  itself,  or  of  reverential  obedience 
to  the  rights  which  it  represents,  that  I  would  consent  to  admit 
its  uncontrolled  and  all-predominant  authority.  When  I  see 
that  the  right  and  the  means  of  absolute  command  are  con- 
ferred on  a  people  or  upon  a  king,  upon  an  aristocracy  or  a  de- 
mocracy, a  monarchy  or  a  republic,  I  recognize  the  germ  of 
tyranny,  and  I  journey  onward  to  a  land  of  more  hopeful  in- 
stitutions. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


m 


ire  Con- 
or a  de- 
ferm  of 
eful  in- 


In  my  opinion  the  main  evil  of  the  present  democratic  insti- 
tutions of  the  United  States  does  not  arise,  as  is  often  asserted 
in  Europe,  from  their  weakness,  but  from  their  overpowering 
strength ;  and  I  am  not  so  much  alarmed  at  the  excessive  lib- 
erty which  reigns  in  that  country  as  at  the  very  inadequate 
securities  which  exist  against  tyranny. 

When  an  individual  or  a  party  is  wronged  in  the  United 
States,  to  whom  can  he  apply  for  redress  ?  If  to  public  opinion, 
public  opinion  constitutes  the  majority;  if  to  the  legislature, 
it  represents  the  majority,  and  implicitly  obeys  its  injunctions ; 
if  to  the  executive  power,  it  is  appointed  by  the  majority,  and 
remains  a  passive  tool  in  its  hands ;  the  public  troops  consist 
of  the  majority  under  arms ;  the  jury  is  the  majority  invested 
with  the  right  of  hearing  judicial  cases ;  and  in  certain  States 
even  the  judges  are  elected  by  the  majority.  However  in- 
iquitous or  absurd  the  evil  of  which  you  complain  may  be,  you 
must  submit  to  it  as  well  as  you  can.d 

If,  on  the  other  hand,  a  legislative  power  could  be  so  consti- 
tuted as  to  represent  the  majority  without  necessarily  being 
the  slave  of  its  passions ;  an  executive,  so  as  to  retain  a  certain 
degree  of  uncontrolled  authority ;  and  a  judiciary,  so  as  to  re- 
main independent  of  the  two  other  powers;  a  government 
would  be  formed  which  would  still  be  democratic  without  in- 
curring any  risk  oT tyrannical  abuse. 


d  A  strikingr  instance  of  the  excesses 
which  may  be  occasioned  by  the  despo- 
tism of  the  majority  occurred  at  Balti- 
more in  the  year  1812.  At  that  time  the 
war  was  very  popular  in  Baltimore.  A 
journal  which  nad  taken  the  other  side 
of  the  question  excited  the  indignation 
of  the  inhabitants  by  its  opposition. 
The  populace  assembled,  broke  the 
printing-presses,  and  attacked  the 
houses  of  the  newspaper  editors.  The 
militia  was  called  out,  but  no  one 
obeyed  the  call;  and  the  only  means  of 
saving  the  poor  wretcVcs  who  were 
threatened  by  the  (.enzy  of  the  mob 
was  to  throw  then"  into  prison  as  com- 
mon malefactors.  But  even  this  precau- 
tion was  ineficctval;  the  mob  collected 
again  during  the  night,  the  magistrates 
again  made  a  vain  attempt  to  call  out 
the  militia,  the  prison  was  forred.  one 
of  the  newspaper  editors  was  killed 
upon  the  soot,  and  the  others  were  left 
for  dead;  the  guilty  parties  were  acquit- 
ted by  the  jury  when  they  were  brought 
to  trial. 

I  said  one  day  to  an  inhabitant  of 
Pennsylvania,  "  Be  so  good  as  to  ex- 
plain to  me  how  it  happens  that  in  a 
State  founded  by  Quakers,  and  cele- 
brated for  its  toleration,  freed  blacks 
are  not  allowed  to  exercise  civil  rights. 


They  pay  the  taxes;  is  it  not  fair  that 
they  should  have  a  vote?  " 

"  You  insult  us,"  replied  my  inform- 
ant, "  if  you  imagine  that  our  legisla- 
tors could  have  committed  so  gross  an 
act  of  injustice  and  intolerance?' 

"  Whatl  then  the  blacks  possess  the 
right  of  voting  in  this  country?" 

"  Without  the  smallest  doubt." 

"  How  comes  it,  then,  that  at  the 
polling-booth  this  morning  I  did  not 
perceive  a  single  negro  in  the  whole 
meeting?" 

"  This  is  not  the  fault  of  the  law:  the 
neg[roes  have  an  undisputed  right  of 
voting,  but  they  voluntarily  abstain 
from  making  their  appearance." 

"  A  very  pretty  piece  of  modesty  on 
their  parts!     rejoined  I. 

/'Why,  the  truth  is,  that  they  are  not 
disinclined  to  vote,  but  they  are  afraid 
of  being  maltreated;  in  this  country  the 
law  is  sometimes  unable  to  maintain  its 
authority  without  the  support  of  the 
majority.  But  in  this  case  the  majority 
entertains  very  strong  prejudices 
against  the  blacks,  and  the  magistrates 
are  unable  to  protect  them  in  the  exer- 
cise of  their  legal   privilecres." 

"  What!  then  the  majority  claims  the 
right  not  only  of  makinpr  the  laws,  but 
of  breaking  the  laws  it  has  made?" 


/ 


Hi 


1 


I 


(iir 


--*c^.A-,   -ar-.^'n'^r 


266 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


I  do  not  say  that  tyrannical  abuses  frequently  occur  in  Amer- 
ica at  the  present  day,  but  I  maintain  that  no  sure  barrier  is 
established  against  them,  and  that  the  causes  which  mitigate 
the  government  are  to  be  found  in  the  circumstances  and  the 
manners  of  the  country  more  than  in  its  laws. 


I     ' 


m 


I 


■ ; 


Effects  of  the  Unlimited  Power  of  the  Majority  Upon 
THE  Arbitrary  Authority  of  the  American  Public 
Officers 

Liberty  left  by  the  American  laws  to  public  officers  within  a  certain 

sphere — Their  power. 

A  distinction  must  be  drawn  between  tyranny  and  arbitrary 
power.  Tyranny  may  be  exercised  by  means  of  the  law,  and 
in  that  case  it  is  not  arbitrary ;  arbitrary  power  may  be  exer- 
cised for  the  good  of  the  community  at  large,  in  which  case 
it  is  not  tyrannical.  Tyranny  usually  employs  arbitrary  means, 
but,  if  necessary,  it  can  rule  without  them. 

In  the  United  States  the  unbounded  power  of  the  majority, 
which  is  favorable  to  the  legal  despotism  of  the  legislature,  is 
likewise  favorable  to  the  arbitrary  authority  of  the  magistrate. 
The  majority  has  an  entire  control  over  the  law  when  it  is  made 
and  when  it  is  executed ;  and  as  it  possesses  an  equal  authority 
over  those  who  are  in  power  and  the  community  at  large,  it 
considers  public  officers  as  its  passive  agents,  and  readily  con- 
fides the  task  of  serving  its  designs  to  their  vigilance.  The  de- 
tails of  their  office  and  the  privileges  which  they  are  to  enjoy 
are  rarely  defined  beforehand ;  but  the  majority  treats  them  as 
a  master  does  his  servants  when  they  are  always  at  work  in  his 
sight,  and  he  has  the  power  of  directing  or  reprimanding  them 
at  every  instant. 

In  general  the  American  functionaries  are  far  more  inde- 
pendent than  the  French  civil  officers  within  the  sphere  which 
is  prescribed  to  them.  Sometimes,  even,  they  are  allowed  by 
the  popular  authority  to  exceed  those  bounds ;  and  as  they  are 
protected  by  the  opinion,  and  backed  by  the  co-operation,  of 
the  majority,  they  venture  upon  such  manifestations  of  their 
power  as  astonish  a  European.  By  this  means  habits  are  formed 
in  the  heart  of  a  free  country  which  may  some  day  prove  fatal 
to  its  liberties. 


m 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


267 


Power  Exercised    by   the    Majority  in  America  Upon 

Opinion 

In  America,  when  the  majority  has  once  irrevocably  decided  a  question, 
all  discussion  ceases — Reason  of  this — Moral  power  exercised  by 
the  majority  upon  opinion — Democratic  republics  have  deprived 
despotism  of  its  physical  instruments— Their  despotism  sways  the 
minds  of  men. 

It  is  in  the  examination  of  the  display  of  public  opinion  in 
the  United  States  that  we  clearly  perceive  how  far  the  power  of 
the  majority  surpasses  all  the  powers  with  which  we  are  ac- 
quainted in  Europe.  Intellectual  principles  exercise  an  influ- 
ence which  is  so  invisible,  and  often  so  inappreciable,  that  they 
baffle  the  toils  of  oppression.  At  the  present  time  the  most 
absolute  monarchs  in  Europe  are  unable  to  prevent  certain  no- 
tions, which  are  opposed  to  their  authority,  from  circulating 
in  secret  throughout  their  dominions,  and  even  in  their  courts. 
Such  is  not  the  case  in  America ;  as  long  as  the  majority  is  still 
undecided,  discussion  is  carried  on ;  but  as  soon  as  its  decision 
is  irrevocably  pronounced,  a  submissive  silence  is  observed, 
and  the  friends,  as  well  as  the  opponents,  of  the  measure  unite 
in  assenting  to  its  propriety.  The  reason  of  this  is  perfectly 
clear :  no  monarch  is  so  absolute  as  to  combine  all  the  powers 
of  society  in  his  own  hands,  and  to  conquer  all  opposition  with 
the  energy  of  a  majority  which  is  invested  with  the  right  of 
making  and  of  executing  the  laws. 

The  authority  of  a  king  is  purely  physical,  and  it  controls 
the  actions  of  the  subject  without  subduing  his  private  will; 
but  the  majority  possesses  a  power  which  is  physical  and  moral 
at  the  same  time ;  it  acts  upon  the  will  as  well  as  upon  the  ac- 
tions of  men,  and  it  represses  not  only  all  contest,  but  all  con- 
troversy, 

I  know  no  country  in  which  there  is  so  little  true  independ- 
ence of  mind  and  freedom  of  discussion  as  in  America.  In  any 
constitutional  state  in  Europe  every  sort  of  religious  and  po- 
litical theory  may  be  advocated  and  propagated  abroad;  for 
there  is  no  country  in  Europe  so  subdued  by  any  single  au- 
thority as  not  to  contain  citizens  who  are  ready  to  protect  the 
man  who  raises  his  voice  in  the  cause  of  truth  from  the  con- 
sequences of  his  hardihood.  If  he  is  unfortunate  enough  to 
live  under  an  absolute  government,  the  people  is  upon  his  side ; 


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DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


if  he  inhabits  a  free  country,  he  may  find  a  shelter  behind  the 
authority  of  the  throne,  if  he  require  one.  T'le  aristocratic 
part  of  society  supports  him  in  some  countrio)«,  and  the  de- 
mocracy in  others.  But  in  a  nation  where  domocratit  institu- 
tions exist,  organized  like  those  of  the  United  Stale  s,  there  is 
but  one  sole  authority,  one  single  element  uf  strength  a/id  of 
success,  with  nothing  beyond  it. 

In  America  the  majority  raises  very  formidable  harriers  to 
the  liberty  of  opinion :  within  these  barriers  an  author  may 
write  whatever  he  pleases,  but  he  will  repent  it  if  he  ever  step 
,  beyond  them.  Not  that  he  is  exposed  to  the  terrors  of  an  auto- 
da-fe,  but  he  is  tormented  by  the  slights  and  persecutions  of 
daily  obloquy.  His  political  career  is  closed  forever,  since 
he  has  oflended  the  only  authority  which  is  able  to  promote  his 
success.  Every  sort  of  compensation,  even  that  of  celebrity, 
is  refused  to  him.  Before  he  published  his  opinions  he  im- 
agined that  he  held  them  in  common  with  many  others ;  but  no 
sooner  has  he  declared  them  openly  than  he  is  loudly  censured 
by  his  overbearing  opponents,  whilst  those  who  think  without 
having  the  courage  to  speak,  like  him,  abandon  him  in  silence. 
He  yields  at  length,  oppressed  by  the  daily  efforts  he  has  been 
making,  and  he  subsides  into  silence,  as  if  he  was  tormented  by 
remorse  for  having  spoken  the  truth. 

Fetters  and  headsmen  were  the  coarse  instruments  which 
tyranny  formerly  employed;  but  the  civilization  of  our  age 
has  refined  the  arts  of  despotism  which  seemed,  however,  to 
have  been  sufficiently  perfected  before.  The  excesses  of  mon- 
archical power  had  devised  a  variety  of  physical  means  of  op- 
pression: the  democratic  republics  of  the  present  day  have 
rendered  it  as  entirely  an  affair  of  the  mind  as  that  will  which 
it  is  intended  to  coerce.  Under  the  absolute  sway  of  an  indi- 
vidual despot  the  body  was  attacked  in  order  to  subdue  the 
soul,  and  the  soul  escaped  the  blows  which  were  directed 
against  it  and  rose  superior  to  the  attempt ;  but  such  is  not 
the  course  adopted  by  tyranny  in  democratic  republics ;  there 
the  body  is  left  free,  and  the  soul  is  enslaved.  The  sovereign 
can  no  longer  say, "  You  shall  think  as  I  do  on  pain  of  death ;  " 
but  he  says,  "  You  are  free  to  think  differently  from  me,  and 
to  retain  your  life,  your  property,  and  all  that  you  possess ;  but 
if  such  be  your  determination,  you  are  henceforth  an  alien 
among  your  people.    You  may  retain  your  civil  rights,  but  they 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


269 


will  be  useless  to  you,  for  you  will  never  be  chosen  by  your 
fcUow-citizcns  if  you  solicit  their  suffrages,  and  they  will  affect 
to  scorn  you  if  you  solicit  their  esteem.  You  will  remain 
among  men,  but  you  will  be  deprived  of  the  rights  of  mankind. 
Your  fcUow-creaturcs  will  shun  you  like  an  impure  being,  and 
those  who  are  most  persuaded  of  your  innocence  will  abandon 
you  too,  lest  they  should  be  shunned  in  their  turn.  Go  in 
peace!  I  have  given  you  your  life,  but  it  is  an  existence  in- 
comparably worse  than  death." 

Monarchical  institutions  have  thrown  an  odium  upon  des- 
potism ;  let  us  beware  lest  democratic  republics  should  restore 
oppression,  and  should  render  it  less  odious  and  less  degrad- 
ing in  the  eyes  of  the  many,  by  making  it  still  more  onerous 
to  the  few. 

Works  have  been  published  in  the  proudest  nations  of  the 
Old  WoHd  expressly  intended  to  censure  the  vices  and  deride 
the  follies  of  the  times:  Labruy6re  inhabited  the  palace  of 
Louis  XIV  when  he  composed  his  chapter  upon  the  Great, 
and  Moliere  criticised  the  courtiers  in  the  very  pieces  which 
were  acted  before  the  Court.  But  the  ruling  power  in  the 
United  States  is  not  to  be  made  game  of ;  the  smallest  reproach 
irritates  its  sensibility,  and  the  slightest  joke  which  has  any 
foundation  in  truth  renders  it  indignant ;  from  the  style  of  its 
language  to  the  more  solid  virtues  of  its  character,  everything 
must  be  made  the  subject  of  encomium.  No  writer,  whatever 
be  his  eminence,  can  escape  from  this  tribute  of  adulation  to 
his  fellow-citizens.  The  majority  lives  in  the  perpetual  prac- 
tice of  self-applause,  and  there  are  certain  truths  which  the 
Americans  can  only  learn  from  strangers  or  from  experience. 

If  great  writers  have  not  at  present  existed  in  America,  the 
reason  is  very  simply  given  in  these  facts;  there  can  be  no  lit- 
erary genius  without  freedom  of  opinion,  and  freedom  of  opin- 
ion does  not  exist  in  America.  The  Inquisition  has  never  been 
able  to  prevent  a  vast  number  of  anti-religious  books  from 
circulating  in  Spain.  The  empire  of  the  majority  succeeds 
much  better  in  the  United  States,  since  it  actually  removes  the 
wish  of  publishing  them.  Unbelievers  are  to  be  met  with  in 
America,  but,  to  say  the  truth,  there  is  no  public  organ  of  in- 
fidelity. Attempts  have  been  made  by  some  governments  to 
protect  the  morality  of  nations  by  prohibiting  licentious  books. 
In  the  United  States  no  one  is  punished  for  this  sort  of  works, 


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270 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


but  no  one  is  induced  to  write  them ;  not  because  all  the  citizens 
are  immaculate  in  their  manners,  but  because  the  majority  of 
the  community  is  decent  and  orderly. 

In  these  cases  the  advantages  derived  from  the  exercise  of 
this  power  are  unquestionable,  and  I  am  simply  discussing  the 
nature  of  the  power  itself.  This  irresistible  authority  is  a  con- 
stant fact,  and  its  judicious  exercise  is  an  accidental  ocur- 
rence. 

Effects  of  the  Tyranny  of  the  Majority  Upon  the  Na- 
tional Character  of  the  Americans 

Effects  of  the  tyranny  of  the  majority  more  sensibly  felt  hitherto  in 
the  manners  than  in  the  conduct  of  society — They  check  the  develop- 
ment of  leading  characters — Democratic  republics  organized  like 
the  United  States  bring  the  practice  of  courting  favor  within  the 
reach  of  the  many — Proofs  of  this  spirit  in  the  United  States — Why 
there  is  more  patriotism  in  the  people  than  in  those  who  govern  in 
its  name. 

The  tendencies  which  I  have  just  alluded  to  are  as  yet  very 
slightly  perceptible  in  political  society,  but  they  already  begin 
to  exercise  an  unfavorable  influence  upon  the  national  character 
of  the  Americans.  I  am  inclined  to  attribute  the  singular  pauc- 
ity of  distinguished  political  characters  to  the  ever-increasing 
activity  of  the  despotism  of  the  majority  in  the  United  States. 
When  the  American  Revolution  broke  out  they  arose  in  great 
numbers,  for  public  opinion  then  served,  not  to  tyrannize  over, 
but  to  direct  the  exertions  of  individuals.  Those  celebrated 
men  took  a  full  part  in  the  general  agitation  of  mind  common 
at  that  period,  and  they  attained  a  high  degree  of  personal 
fame,  which  was  reflected  back  upon  the  nation,  but  which  was 
by  no  means  borrowed  from  it. 

In  absolute  governments  the  great  nobles  who  are  nearest  to 
the  throne  flatter  the  passions  of  the  sovereign,  and  voluntarily 
truckle  to  his  caprices.  But  the  mass  of  the  nation  does  not 
degrade  itself  by  servitude:  it  often  submits  from  weakness, 
from  habit,  or  from  ignorance,  and  sometimes  from  loyalty. 
Some  nations  have  been  known  to  sacrifice  their  own  desires  to 
those  of  the  sovereign  with  pleasure  and  with  pride,  thus  ex- 
hibiting a  sort  of  independence  in  the  very  act  of  submission. 
These  peoples  are  miserable,  but  they  are  not  degraded.  There 
is  a  great  difference  between  doing  what  one  does  not  approve 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


971 


and  feigning  to  approve  what  one  does ;  the  one  is  the  necessary 
case  of  a  weak  person,  the  other  befits  the  temper  of  a  lackey. 

In  free  countries,  where  everyone  is  more  or  less  called  upon 
to  give  his  opinion  in  the  affairs  of  state;  in  democratic  re- 
publics, where  public  Hfe  is  incessantly  commingled  with  do- 
mestic affairs,  where  the  sovereign  authority  is  accessible  on 
every  side,  and  where  its  attention  can  almost  always  be  at- 
tracted by  vociferation,  more  persons  are  to  be  met  with  who 
speculate  upon  its  foibles  and  live  at  the  cost  of  its  passions 
than  in  absolute  monarchies.  Not  because  men  are  naturally 
worse  in  these  States  than  elsewhere,  but  the  temptation  is 
stronger,  and  of  easier  access  at  the  same  time.  The  result  is  a 
far  more  extensive  debasement  of  the  characters  of  citizens. 

Democratic  republics  extend  the  practice  of  currying  favor 
with  the  many,  and  they  introduce  it  into  a  greater  number  of 
classes  at  once :  this  is  one  of  the  most  serious  reproaches  that 
can  be  addressed  to  them.  In  democratic  States  organized  on 
the  principles  of  the  American  republics,  this  is  more  especially 
the  case,  where  the  authority  of  the  majority  is  so  absolute  and 
so  irresistible  that  a  man  must  give  up  his  rights  as  a  citizen, 
and  almost  abjure  his  quality  as  a  human  being,  if  he  intends 
to  stray  from  the  track  which  it  lays  down. 

In  that  immense  crowd  which  throngs  the  avenues  to  power 
in  the  United  States  I  found  very  few  men  who  displayed  any 
of  that  manly  candor  and  that  masculine  independence  of  opin- 
ion which  frequently  distinguished  the  Americans  in  former 
times,  and  which  constitutes  the  leading  feature  in  distinguished 
characters,  wheresoever  they  may  be  found.  It  seems,  at  first 
sight,  as  if  all  the  minds  of  the  Americans  were  formed  upon 
one  model,  so  accurately  do  they  correspond  in  their  manner  of 
\  judging.  A  stranger  does,  indeed,  sometimes  meet  with  Ameri- 
cans who  dissent  from  these  rigorous  formularies;  with  men 
who  deplore  the  defects  of  the  laws,  the  mutability  and  the 
ignorance  of  democracy ;  who  even  go  so  far  as  to  observe  the 
evil  tendencies  which  impair  the  national  character,  and  to  point 
out  such  remedies  as  it  might  be  possible  to  apply ;  but  no  one 
is  there  to  hear  these  things  besides  yourself,  and  you,  to  whom 
these  secret  reflections  are  confided,  are  a  stranger  and  a  bird 
of  passage.  They  are  very  ready  to  communicate  truths  which 
are  useless  to  you,  but  they  continue  to  hold  a  different  language 
in  public. 


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DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


If  ever  these  lines  are  read  in  America,  I  am  well  assured  of 
two  things:  in  the  first  place,  that  all  who  peruse  them  will 
raise  their  voices  to  condemn  me ;  and  in  the  second  place,  that 
very  many  of  them  will  acquit  me  at  the  bottom  of  their  con- 
science. 

I  have  heard  of  patriotism  in  the  United  States,  and  it  is  a 
virtue  which  may  be  found  among  the  people,  but  never  among 
the  leaders  of  the  people.  This  may  be  explained  by  analogy ; 
despotism  debases  the  oppressed  much  more  than  the  oppressor : 
in  absolute  monarchies  the  king  has  often  great  virtues,  but 
the  courtiers  are  invariably  servile.  It  is  true  that  the  American 
courtiers  do  not  say  "  Sire,"  or  "  Your  Majesty  " — a  distinc- 
tion without  a  difference.  They  are  forever  talking  of  the  nat- 
ural intelligence  of  the  populace  they  serve ;  they  do  not  debate 
the  question  as  to  which  of  the  virtues  of  their  master  is  pre- 
eminently worthy  of  admiration,  for  they  assure  him  that  he 
possesses  all  the  virtues  under  heaven  without  having  acquired 
them,  or  without  caring  to  acquire  them;  they  do  not  give 
him  their  daughters  and  their  wives  to  be  raised  at  his  pleasure 
to  the  rank  of  his  concubines,  but,  by  sacrificing  their  opinions, 
they  prostitute  themselves.  Moralists  and  philosophers  in 
America  are  not  obliged  to  conceal  their  opinions  under  the  veil 
of  allegory ;  but,  before  they  venture  upon  a  harsh  truth,  they 
say,  "  We  are  aware  that  the  people  which  we  are  addressing 
is  too  superior  to  all  the  weaknesses  of  human  nature  to  lose 
the  command  of  its  temper  for  an  instant ;  and  we  should  not 
hold  this  language  if  we  were  not  speaking  to  men  whom  their 
virtues  and  their  intelligence  render  more  worthy  of  freedom 
than  all  the  rest  of  the  world."  It  would  have  been  impossible 
for  the  sycophants  of  Louis  XIV  to  flatter  more  dexterously. 
For  my  part,  I  am  persuaded  that  in  all  governments,  whatever 
their  nature  may  be,  servility  will  cower  to  force,  and  adulation 
will  cling  to  power.  The  only  means  of  preventing  men  from 
degrading  themselves  is  to  invest  no  one  with  tliat  unlimited 
authority  which  is  the  surest  method  of  debasing  them. 


,1  :        '    f  I* 


/ 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


373 


The  Greatest  Dangers  of  the  American  Republics  Pro- 
ceed FROM  THE  Unlimited  Power  of  the  Majority 

Democratic  republics  liable  to  perish  from  a  misuse  of  their  power,  and 
not  by  impotence — The  Governments  of  the  American  republics  are 
more  centralized  and  more  energetic  than  those  of  the  monarchies 
of  Europe — Dangers  resulting  from  this — Opinions  of  Hamilton  and 
Jefferson  upon  this  point. 

Governments  usually  fall  a  sacrifice  to  impotence  or  to  tyr- 
anny. In  the  former  case  their  power  escapes  from  them; 
it  is  wrested  from  their  grasp  in  the  latter.  Many  observers,  / 
who  have  witnessed  the  anarchy  of  democratic  States,  have 
imagined  that  the  government  of  those  States  was  naturally 
weak  and  impotent.  The  truth  is,  that  when  once  hostilities 
are  begun  between  parties,  the  government  loses  its  control  over 
society.  But  I  do  not  think  that  a  democratic  power  is  nat- 
urally without  force  or  without  resources :  say,  rather,  that  it  is 
almost  always  by  the  abuse  of  its  force  and  the  misemployment 
of  its  resources  that  a  democratic  government  fails.  Anarchy 
is  almost  always  produced  by  its  tyranny  or  its  mistakes,  but 
not  by  its  want  of  strength. 

It  is  important  not  to  confound  stability  with  force,  or  the 
greatness  of  a  thing  with  its  duration.  In  democratic  republics, 
the  power  which  directs^  society  is  not  stable;  for  it  often 
changes  hands  and  assumes  a  new  direction.  But  whichever 
way  it  turns,  its  force  is  almost  irresistible.  The  Governments 
of  the  American  republics  appear  to  me  to  be  as  much  central- 
ized as  those  of  the  absolute  monarchies  of  Europe,  and  more 
energetic  than  they  are.  I  do  not,  therefore,  imagine  that  they 
will  perish  from  weakness./^ 

If  ever  the  free  institutions  of  America  are  destroyed,  that 
event  may  be  attributed  to  the  unlimited  authority  of  the  ma- 
jority, which  may  at  some  future  time  urge  the  minorities  to 
desperation,  and  oblige  them  to  have  recourse  to  physical  force. 
Anarchy  will  then  be  the  result,  but  it  will  have  been  brought 
about  by  despotism. 

Mr.  Hamilton  expresses  the  same  opinion  in  the  "  Fed- 


e  This  power  may  be  centred  in  an  as- 
sembly, m  which  case  it  will  be  strong 
without  being  stable;  or  it  may  be  cen- 
tred in  an  individual,  in  which  case  it 
will  be  less  strong,  but  more  stable. 

/  I  presume  that  it  is  scarcely  neces- 

VOL.   I.— 18 


sary  to  remind  the  reader  here,  as  well 
as  throughout  the  remainder  of  this 
chapter,  tnat  I  am  speaking,  not  of  the 
Federal  Government,  but  of  the  several 
governments  of  each  State,  which  the 
majority  controls  at  its  pleasure. 


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274 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


eralist,"  No.  51.  "  It  is  of  great  importance  in  a  republic  not 
only  to  guard  the  society  against  the  oppression  of  its  rulers,  but 
to  guard  one  part  of  the  society  against  the  injustice  of  the 
other  part.  Justice  is  the  end  of  government.  It  is  the  end  of 
civil  society.  It  ever  has  been,  and  ever  will  be,  pursued  until  it 
be  obtained,  or  until  liberty  be  lost  in  the  pursuit.  In  a  society, 
under  the  forms  of  which  the  stronger  faction  can  readily  unite 
and  oppress  the  weaker,  anarchy  may  as  truly  be  said  to  reign 
as  in  a  state  of  nature,  where  the  weaker  individual  is  not  se- 
cured against  the  violence  of  the  stronger :  and  as  in  the  latter 
state  even  the  stronger  individuals  are  prompted  by  the  uncer- 
tainty of  their  condition  to  submit  to  a  government  which  may 
protect  the  weak  as  well  as  themselves,  so  in  the  former  state 
will  the  more  powerful  factions  be  gradually  induced  by  a  like 
motive  to  wish  for  a  government  which  will  protect  all  parties, 
the  weaker  as  well  as  the  more  powerful.  It  can  be  little 
doubted  that,  if  the  State  of  Rhode  Island  was  separated  from 
the  Confederacy  and  left  to  itself,  the  insecurity  of  right  under 
the  popular  form  of  government  within  such  narrow  limits 
would  be  displayed  by  such  reiterated  oppressions  of  the  fac- 
tious majorities,  that  some  power  altogether  independent  of  the 
people  would  soon  be  called  for  by  the  voice  of  the  very  factions 
whose  misrule  had  proved  the  necessity  of  it." 

Jefferson  has  also  thus  expressed  himself  in  a  letter  to  Madi- 
son:«  "The  executive  power  in  our  Government  is  not  the 
only,  perhaps  not  even  the  principal,  object  of  my  solicitude. 
The  tyranny  of  the  Legislature  is  really  the  danger  most  to  be 
feared,  and  will  continue  to  be  so  for  many  years  to  come.  The 
tyranny  of  the  executive  power  will  come  in  its  turn,  but  at  a 
.  more  distant  period."  I  am  glad  to  cite  the  opinion  of  Jefferson 
upon  this  subject  rather  than  that  of  another,  because  I  con- 
sider him  to  be  the  most  powe'-ful  advocate  democracy  has  ever 
sent  forth. 

g  March  is,  1789. 


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CHOICE   EXAMPLES   OF   CLASSIC  SCULPTURE. 


i    \A    ihc    "lie    V'l    i       ■'•'■  ' 

liuSi'.t  .sC'.-.vsy       '.t,  <.v'<'r  h:!>\  !;ri.'ii,  :v>:',\  ."»f  v 
':v  '      :  aniil  libri'I)  Ik;  i-:..>i  in  fr 

.;'.:.       ..   :    ,  lits  v;(  vvhuii  the '.si'   h;;' • 
^thi  !.,i|'*prf.' -'.•;.  (lit.  wfTiivi.T.  an,'i.rt.;;;  ri'V   <■ 
u..  in  a  statu  ui;  ua:  iiv,,  where  the  n'ft. 
v'urt'Vl  ;ii;i<'i>si  thv  ri*-!'.:!!!-*.'  ;.■!  *■  ■    ^d^m; 
sta.v/'vi:'i  :h':  ,.ir,,>jii.;i.n  !i;\iivii.iu.ii-.  .\:< 

prokvt  ;.Ii':  svoak  as  \' cl!  u^  •h'n'N''!  /i 


■-  .   .ilk. 
t.'c  eui,{_("'t 

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DIANA:' 


Pboto-engravmg  from  the  original  marble  staltu  in  the  Louvre  at  Paris.       i 


The  most  cclchratPtl  4f  the  existing  stafiiep  of  Dinna  is  the  Diana  of  Versailles, 
from  Hadrian's  viUft  at  Tibiir.  It  has  been  in  France  since  the  time  of  Henry  IV. 
l-'ormcrly  it  was  at  Vorsaillcs,  but  it  is  now  one  of  tlie  tn-asures  of  tlie  Luuvro.  It 
lilainly  belongs  to  ihe  school  nf  the  Apollo  Ik-lvi'drre,  auil  there  is  no  reason  why  it 
might  not  have  formed  a  part  of  the  group  in  which  the  Apollo  stood.  Plana  is 
represented  as  a  slender  huntress,  leading  her  hind  and  hastening  forward,  as  if  in 
pursuit  of  game.  She  looks  toward  the  right,  as,  with  raised  arm,  she  is  about  to 
draw  an  arrow  from  the  quiver. 


ill' :f,  tU-t.jt<:  '  '  ■  >■ 


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Pans. 

f  \'cr<nil!es, 
f  Henry  IV. 
Luuvri'.  It 
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ard,  as  if  in 
;  is  about  to 


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i  'I 


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I, 


CHAPTER  XVI 

CAUSES  WHICH  MITIGATE  THE  TYRANNY  OF  THE  MA- 
JORITY IN  THE  UNITED  STATES 

Absence  of  Central  Administration 


/. 


The  national  majority  does  not  pretend  to  conduct  all  business — Is 
obliged  to  employ  the  town  and  county  magistrates  to  execute  its 
supreme  decisions. 

I  HAVE  already  pointed  out  the  distinction  which  is  to  be 
made  between  a  centralized  government  and  a  centralized 
administration.  The  former  exists  in  America,  but  the 
latter  is  nearly  unknown  there.  If  the  directing  power  of  the 
American  communities  had  both  these  instruments  of  govern- 
ment at  its  disposal,  and  united  the  habit  of  executing  its  own 
commands  to  the  right  of  commanding;  if,  after  having  estab- 
lished the  general  principles  of  government,  it  descended  to 
the  details  of  public  business;  and  if,  having  regulated  the 
great  interests  of  the  country,  it  could  penetrate  into  the  privacy 
of  individual  interests,  freedom  would  soon  be  banished  from 
the  New  World. 

But  in  the  United  States  the  majority,  which  so  frequently 
displays  the  tastes  and  the  propensities  of  a  despot,  is  still  des- 
titute of  the  more  perfect  instruments  of  tyranny.  In  the 
American  republics  the  activity  of  the  central  Government  has 
never  as  yet  been  extended  beyond  a  limited  number  of  objects 
sufficiently  prominent  to  call  forth  its  attention.  The  secondary 
aflfairs  of  society  have  never  been  regulated  by  its  authority, 
and  nothing  has  hitherto  betrayed  its  desire  of  interfering  in 
them.  The  majority  is  become  more  and  more  absolute,  but 
it  has  not  increased  the  prerogatives  of  the  central  government ; 
those  great  prerogatives  have  been  confined  to  a  certain  sphere ; 
and  although  the  despotism  of  the  majority  may  be  galling  upon 

275 


il 


/t 


!! 


376 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


one  point,  it  cannot  be  said  to  extend  to  all.  However  the  pre- 
dominant party  in  the  nation  may  be  carried  away  by  its  pas- 
sions, however  ardent  it  may  be  in  the  pursuit  of  its  projects, 
it  cannot  obUge  all  the  citizens  to  comply  with  its  desires  in  the 
same  manner  and  at  the  same  time  throughout  the  country. 
When  the  central  Government  which  represents  that  majority 
has  issued  a  decree,  it  must  entrust  the  execution  of  its  will  to 
agents,  over  whom  it  frequently  has  no  control,  and  whom  it 
cannot  perpetually  direct.  The  townships,  municipal  bodies, 
and  counties  may  therefore  be  looked  upon  as  concealed  break- 
waters, which  check  or  part  the  tide  of  popular  excitement.  If 
an  oppressive  law  were  passed,  the  liberties  of  the  people  would 
still  be  protected  by  the  means  by  which  that  law  would  be  put 
in  execution:  the  majority  cannot  descend  to  the  details  and 
(as  I  will  venture  to  style  them)  the  puerilities  of  administra- 
tive tyranny.  Nor  does  the  people  entertain  that  full  conscious- 
ness of  its  authority  which  would  prompt  it  to  interfere  in  these 
matters ;  it  knows  the  extent  of  its  natural  powers,  but  it  is  un- 
acquainted with  the  increased  resources  which  the  art  of  gov- 
ernment might  furnish. 

This  point  deserves  attention,  for  if  a  democratic  republic 
similar  to  that  of  the  United  States  were  ever  founded  in  a 
country  where  the  power  of  a  single  individual  had  previously 
subsisted,  and  the  eflfects  of  a  centralized  administration  had 
sunk  deep  into  the  habits  and  the  laws  of  the  people,  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  assert,  that  in  that  country  a  more  insufferable  des- 
potism would  prevail  than  any  which  now  exists  in  the  monar- 
chical States  of  Europe,  or  indeed  than  any  which  could  be 
found  on  this  side  of  the  confines  of  Asia. 


!i  ry 


(f- 


PEMOCS^bCV    IN    AMERICA 


277 


The  rKOKi.  OF  THr   Law  in  the  United  States  Serves 

>d  CouNTi    /'OisK  THE  Democracy 

Utility  of  discr*4*iiniMing  thr  natural  propensities  of  the  members  of  the 
legal  profession-  i  licsi  mi-n  called  upon  to  act  a  prominent  part  in 
future  society — In  what  manner  the  peculiar  pursuits  of  lawyers  give 
an  aristocratic  turn  to  their  ideas — Accidental  causes  which  may 
check  this  tendency — Ease  with  which  the  aristocracy  coalesces  with 
legal  men — Use  of  lawyers  to  a  despot — The  proiession  of  lie  law 
constitutes  the  only  aristocratic  element  with  which  the  natiirnl  ele- 
ments of  democracy  will  combine — Peculiar  causes  which  tend  to 
give  an  aristocratic  turn  of  mind  to  the  English  and  American 
lawyers — The  aristocracy  of  America  is  on  the  bench  and  at  the  bar 
— Influence  of  lawyers  upon  American  society — Their  peculiar  mag- 
isterial habits  affect  the  legislature,  the  administration,  and  even  the 
people. 

In  visiting  the  Americans  and  in  studying  their  laws  we  per- 
ceive that  the  authority  they  have  entrusted  to  members  of  the 
legal  profession,  and  the  influence  which  these  individuals  ex- 
ercise in  the  Government,  is  the  most  powerful  existing  security 
against  the  excesses  of  democracy.  This  effect  seems  to  me  to 
result  from  a  general  cause  which  it  is  useful  to  investigate, 
since  it  may  produce  analogous  consequences  elsewhere. 

The  members  of  the  legal  profession  have  taken  an  important 
part  in  all  the  vicissitudes  of  political  society  in  Europe  during 
the  last  five  hundred  years.  At  one  time  they  have  been  the  in- 
struments of  those  who  were  invested  with  political  authority, 
and  at  another  they  have  succeeded  in  converting  political  au- 
thorities into  their  instrument.  In  the  Middle  Ages  they  af- 
forded a  powerful  support  to  the  Crown,  and  since  that  period 
they  have  exerted  themselves  to  the  utmost  to  limit  the  royal 
prerogative.  In  England  they  have  contracted  a  close  alliance 
with  the  aristocracy;  in  France  they  have  proved  to  be  the 
most  dangerous  enemies  of  that  class.  It  is  my  object  to  in- 
quire whether,  under  all  these  circumstances,  the  members  of 
the  legal  profession  have  been  swayed  by  sudden  and  momen- 
tary impulses ;  or  whether  they  have  been  impelled  by  princi- 
ples which  are  inherent  in  their  pursuits,  and  which  will  always 
recur  in  history.  I  am  incited  to  this  investigation  by  reflecting 
that  this  particular  class  of  men  will  most  likely  play  a  promi- 
nent part  in  that  order  of  things  to  which  the  events  of  our  time 
are  giving  birth. 

Men  who  have  more  especially  devoted  themselves  to  legal 


;i 


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pursuits  derive  from  those  occupations  certain  habits  of  order,  a 
taste  for  formalities,  and  a  kind  of  instinctive  regard  for  the 
rcpular  connection  of  ideas,  which  naturally  render  them  very 
hostile  to  the  revolutionary  spirit  and  the  unreflecting  passions 
of  the  multitude. 

The  special  information  which  lawyers  derive  from  their 
studies  ensures  them  a  separate-  'Station  in  society,  and  they 
constitute  a  sort  of  privileged  boil  in  the  scale  of  intelligence. 
This  notion  of  their  superiority  perpetually  recurs  to  them  in 
the  practice  of  their  profession :  they  are  the  masters  of  a  sci- 
ence which  is  necessary,  but  which  is  not  very  generally  known  ; 
they  serve  as  arbiters  between  the  citizens;  and  the  habit  of 
directing  the  blind  passions  of  parties  in  litigation  to  their  pur- 
pose inspires  them  with  a  certain  contempt  for  the  judgment 
of  the  multitude.  To  this  it  may  be  added  that  they  naturally 
constitute  a  body,  not  by  any  previous  understanding,  or  by  an 
agreement  which  directs  them  to  a  common  end ;  but  the  an- 
alogy of  their  studies  and  the  uniformity  of  their  proceedings 
connect  their  minds  together,  as  much  as  a  common  interest 
could  combine  their  endeavors. 

A  portion  of  the  tastes  and  of  the  habits  of  the  aristocracy 
may  consequently  be  discovered  in  the  characters  of  men  in 
the  profession  of  the  law.  They  participate  in  the  same  in- 
stinctive love  of  order  and  of  formalities;  and  they  entertain 
the  same  repugnance  to  the  actions  of  the  multitude,  and  the 
same  secret  contempt  of  the  government  of  the  people.  I  do 
not  mean  to  say  that  the  natural  propensities  of  lawyers  arc 
sufficiently  strong  to  sway  them  irresistibly ;  for  they,  like  most 
other  men,  are  governed  by  their  private  interests  and  the  ad- 
vantages of  the  moment. 

In  a  state  of  society  in  which  the  members  of  the  legal  pro- 
fession are  prevented  from  holding  that  rank  in  the  political 
world  which  they  enjoy  in  private  life,  we  may  rest  assured 
that  they  will  be  the  foremost  agents  of  revolution.  But  it 
must  then  be  inquired  whether  the  cause  which  induces  them 
to  innovate  and  to  destroy  is  accidental,  or  whether  it  belongs 
to  some  lasting  purpose  which  t'v'y  entertain.  It  is  true  that 
lawyers  mainly  contributed  to  tl.'j  overthrow  of  the  French 
monarchy  in  1789;  but  it  remains  to  be  seen  whether  they  acted 
thus  because  they  had  studied  the  laws,  or  because  they  were 
prohibited  from  co-operating  in  the  work  of  legislation. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


379 


Five  hundred  years  apo  the  English  nobles  headed  the  peo- 
ple, and  spoke  in  its  name ;  at  tiic  present  time  the  aristocracy 
supports  the  throne,  and  defends  the  royal  prerogative.  But 
aristocracy  has,  notwithstanding  tiiis,  its  peculiar  instincts  and 
propensities.  We  must  be  careful  not  to  confound  isolated 
members  of  a  body  with  the  body  itself.  In  all  free  govern- 
ments, of  whatsoever  form  they  may  be,  members  of  the  legal 
profession  will  be  found  at  the  head  of  all  parties.  The  same 
remark  is  also  applicable  to  the  aristocracy ;  for  almost  all  the 
democratic  convulsions  which  have  agitated  the  world  have 
been  directed  by  nobles. 

A  privileged  body  can  never  satisfy  the  ambition  of  all  its 
members ;  it  has  always  more  talents  and  more  passions  to  con- 
tent and  to  employ  than  it  can  find  places ;  so  that  a  consider- 
able number  of  individuals  are  usually  to  be  met  with  who  are 
inclined  to  attack  those  very  privileges  which  they  find  it  im- 
possible to  turn  to  their  own  account. 

I  do  not,  then,  assert  that  all  the  members  of  the  legal  pro- 
fession are  at  all  times  the  friends  of  order  and  the  opponents 
of  innovation,  but  merely  that  most  of  them  usually  are  so. 
In  a  community  in  which  lawyers  are  allowed  to  occupy,  with- 
out opposition,  that  high  station  which  naturally  belongs  to 
them,  their  general  spirit  will  be  eminently  conservative  and 
anti-democratic.  When  an  aristocracy  excludes  the  leaders 
of  that  profession  from  its  ranks,  it  excites  enemies  which  are 
the  more  formidable  to  its  security  as  they  are  independent  of 
the  nobility  by  their  industrious  pursuits ;  and  they  feel  them- 
selves to  be  its  equal  in  point  of  intelligence,  although  they  en- 
joy less  opul'^nce  and  less  power.  But  whenever  an  aristoc- 
racy consents  to  impart  some  of  its  privileges  to  these  same 
individuals,  the  two  classes  coalesce  very  readily,  and  assume, 
as  it  were,  the  consistency  of  a  single  order  of  family  interests. 

I  am,  in  like  manner,  inclined  to  believe  that  a  monarch  will 
always  be  able  to  convert  legal  practitioners  into  the  most  ser- 
viceable instruments  of  his  authority.  There  is  a  far  greater 
affinity  between  this  class  of  individuals  and  the  executive 
power  than  there  is  between  them  and  the  people ;  just  as  there 
is  a  greater  natural  affinity  between  the  nobles  and  the  mon- 
arch than  between  the  nobles  and  the  people,  although  the 
higher  orders  of  society  have  occasionally  resisted  the  preroga- 
tive of  the  Crown  in  concert  with  the  lower  classes. 


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DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


Lawyers  are  attached  to  public  order  beyond  every  other 
consideration,  and  the  best  security  of  public  order  is  authority. 
It  must  not  be  forgotten  that,  if  they  prize  the  free  institutions 
of  their  country  much,  they  nevertheless  value  the  legality  of 
those  institutions  far  more :  they  are  less  afraid  of  tyranny  than 
of  arbitrary  power ;  and  provided  that  the  legislature  take  upon 
itself  to  deprive  men  of  their  independence,  they  are  not  dis- 
satisfied. 

I  am  therefore  convinced  that  the  prince  who,  in  presence  of 
an  encroaching  democ.acy,  should  endeavor  to  impair  the  ju- 
dicial authority  in  his  dominions,  and  to  diminish  the  political 
influence  of  lawyers,  would  commit  a  great  mistake.  He  would 
let  slip  the  substance  of  authority  to  grasp  at  the  shadow.  He 
would  act  more  wisely  in  introducing  men  connected  with  the 
law  into  the  government;  and  if  he  entrusted  them  with  the 
conduct  of  a  despotic  power,  bearing  some  marks  of  violence, 
that  power  would  most  likely  assume  the  external  features  of 
justice  and  of  legality  in  their  hands. 

The  government  of  democracy  is  favorable  to  the  political 
power  of  lawyers;  for  when  the  wealthy,  the  noble,  and  the 
prince  are  excluded  from  the  government,  they  are  sure  to  oc- 
cupy the  highest  stations,  in  their  own  right,  as  it  were,  since 
they  are  the  only  men  of  information  and  sagacity,  beyond  the 
sphere  of  the  people,  who  can  be  the  object  of  the  popular 
choice.  If,  then,  they  are  led  by  their  tastes  to  combine  with 
the  aristocracy  and  to  support  the  Crown,  they  are  naturally 
brought  into  contact  with  the  people  by  their  interests.  They 
like  the  government  of  democracy,  without  participating  in 
its  propensities  and  without  imitating  its  weaknesses ;  whence 
they  derive  a  twofold  authority,  from  it  and  over  it.  The  peo- 
ple in  democratic  states  does  not  mistrust  the  members  of  the 
legal  profession,  because  it  is  well  known  that  they  are  inter- 
ested in  serving  the  popular  cause ;  and  it  listens  to  them  with- 
out irritation,  because  it  does  not  attribute  to  them  any  sinister 
designs.  The  object  of  lawyers  is  not,  indeed,  to  overthrow 
the  institutions  of  democracy,  but  they  constantly  endeavor  to 
give  it  an  impulse  which  diverts  it  from  its  real  tendency,  by 
means  which  are  foreign  to  its  nature.  Lawyers  belong  to  the 
people  by  birth  and  interest,  to  the  aristocracy  by  habit  and  by 
taste,  and  they  may  be  looked  upon  as  the  natural  bond  and 
connecting  link  of  the  two  great  classes  of  society. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


281 


The  profession  of  the  law  is  the  only  aristocratic  element 
which  can  be  amalgamated  without  violence  with  the  natural 
elements  of  democracy,  and  which  can  be  advantageously  and 
permanently  combined  with  them.  I  am  not  unacquainted 
with  the  defects  which  are  inherent  in  the  character  of  that  body 
of  men ;  but  without  this  admixture  of  lawyer-like  sobriety 
with  the  democratic  principle,  I  question  whether  democratic 
institutions  could  long  be  maintained,  and  I  cannot  believe  that 
a  republic  could  subsist  at  the  present  time  if  the  influence  of 
lawyers  in  public  business  did  not  increase  in  proportion  to  the 
power  of  the  people. 

This  aristocratic  character,  which  I  hold  to  be  common  to 
the  legal  profession,  is  much  more  distinctly  marked  in  the 
United  States  and  in  England  than  in  any  other  country.  This 
proceeds  not  only  from  the  legal  studies  of  the  English  and 
American  lawyers,  but  from  the  nature  of  the  legislation,  and 
the  position  which  those  persons  occupy  in  the  two  countries. 
The  English  and  the  Americans  have  retained  the  law  of  pre- 
cedents ;  that  is  to  say,  they  continue  to  found  their  legal  opin- 
ions and  the  decisions  of  their  courts  upon  the  opinions  and  the 
decisions  of  their  forefathers.  In  the  mind  of  an  English  or 
American  lawyer  a  taste  and  a  reverence  for  what  is  old  is  al- 
most always  united  to  a  love  of  regular  and  lawful  proceedings. 

This  predisposition  has  another  effect  upon  the  character  of 
the  legal  profession  and  upon  the  general  course  of  society. 
The  English  and  American  lawyers  investigate  what  has  been 
done;  the  French  advocate  inquires  what  should  have  been 
done ;  the  former  produce  precedents,  the  latter  reasons.  A 
French  observer  is  surprised  to  hear  how  often  an  English  or  an 
American  lawyer  quotes  the  opinions  of  others,  and  how  little 
he  alludes  to  his  own ;  whilst  the  reverse  occurs  in  France. 
There  the  most  trifling  litigation  is  never  conducted  without  the 
introduction  of  an  entire  system  of  ideas  peculiar  to  the  counsel 
employed ;  and  the  fundamental  principles  of  law  are  discussed 
in  order  to  obtain  a  perch  of  land  by  the  decision  of  the  court. 
This  abnegation  of  his  own  opinion,  and  this  implicit  deference 
to  the  opinion  of  his  forefathers,  which  are  common  to  the  Eng- 
lish and  American  lawyer,  this  subjection  of  thought  which  he 
is  obliged  to  profess,  necessarily  give  him  more  timid  habits 
and  more  sluggish  inclinations  in  England  and  America  than  in 
France. 


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282 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


The  French  codes  are  often  difficult  of  comprehension,  but 
they  can  be  read  by  every  one ;  nothing,  on  the  other  hand,  can 
be  more  impenetrable  to  the  uninitiated  than  a  legislation 
founded  upon  precedents.  The  indispensable  want  of  legal 
assistance  which  is  felt  in  England  and  in  the  United  States,  and 
the  high  opinion  which  is  generally  entertained  of  the  ability  of 
the  legal  profession,  tend  to  separate  it  more  and  more  from  the 
people,  and  to  place  it  in  a  distinct  class.  The  French  lawyer 
is  simply  a  man  extensively  acquainted  with  the  statutes  of  his 
country ;  but  the  English  or  American  lawyer  resembles  the 
hierophants  of  Egypt,  for,  like  them,  he  is  the  sole  interpreter  of 
an  occult  science. 

The  station  which  lawyers  occupy  in  England  and  America 
exercises  no  less  an  influence  upon  their  habits  and  their  opin- 
ions. The  English  aristocracy,  which  has  taken  care  to  attract 
to  its  sphere  whatever  is  at  all  analogous  to  itself,  has  conferred 
a  high  degree  of  importance  and  of  authority  upon  the  members 
of  the  legal  profession.  In  English  society  lawyers  do  not  oc- 
cupy the  first  rank,  but  they  are  contented  with  the  station  as- 
signed to  them ;  they  constitute,  as  it  were,  the  younger  branch 
of  the  English  aristocracy,  and  they  are  attached  to  their  elder 
brothers,  although  they  do  not  enjoy  all  their  privileges.  The 
English  lawyers  consequently  mingle  the  taste  and  the  ideas  of 
the  aristocratic  circles  in  which  they  move  with  the  aristocratic 
interests  of  their  profession. 

And  indeed  the  lawyer-like  character  which  I  am  endeavor- 
ing to  depict  is  most  distinctly  to  be  met  with  in  England :  there 
laws  are  esteemed  not  so  much  because  they  are  good  as  because 
they  are  old ;  and  if  it  be  necessary  to  modify  them  in  any  re- 
spect, or  to  adapt  them  to  the  changes  which  time  operates  in 
society,  recourse  is  had  to  the  most  inconceivable  contrivances 
in  order  to  uphold  the  traditionary  fabric,  and  to  maintain  that 
nothing  has  been  done  which  does  not  square  with  the  inten- 
tions and  complete  the  labors  of  former  generations.  The  very 
individuals  who  conduct  these  changes  disclaim  all  intention  of 
innovation,  and  they  had  rather  resort  to  absurd  expedients 
than  plead  guilty  to  so  great  a  crime.  This  spirit  appertains 
more  especially  to  the  English  lawyers ;  they  seem  indiflferent 
to  the  real  meaning  of  what  they  treat,  and  they  direct  all  their 
attention  to  the  letter,  seeming  inclined  to  infringe  the  rules  of 
common  sense  and  of  humanity  rather  than  to  swerve  one  tittle 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


283 


from  the  law.  The  English  legislation  may  be  compared  to  the 
stock  of  an  old  tree,  upon  which  lawyers  have  engrafted  the 
most  various  shoots,  with  the  hope  that,  although  their  fruits 
may  diflfer,  their  foliage  at  least  will  be  confounded  with  the 
venerable  trunk  which  supports  them  all. 

In  America  there  are  no  nobles  or  men  of  letters,  and  the  peo- 
ple is  apt  to  mistrust  the  wealthy ;  lawyers  consequently  form 
the  highest  political  class,  and  the  most  cultivated  circle  of  so- 
ciety. They  have  therefore  nothing  to  gain  by  innovation, 
which  adds  a  conservative  interest  to  their  natural  taste  for  pub- 
lic order.  If  I  were  asked  where  I  place  the  American  aristoc- 
racy, I  should  reply  without  hesitation  that  it  is  not  composed 
of  the  rich,  who  are  united  together  by  no  common  tie,  but  that 
it  occupies  the  judicial  bench  and  the  bar. 

The  more  we  reflect  upon  all  that  occurs  in  the  United  States 
the  more  shall  we  be  persuaded  that  the  lawyers  as  a  body  form 
the  most  powerful,  if  not  the  only,  counterpoise  to  the  demo» 
cratic  element.  In  that  country  we  perceive  how  eminently 
the  legal  profession  is  qualified  by  its  powers,  and  even  by  its 
defects,  to  neutralize  the  vices  which  are  inherent  in  popular 
government.  When  the  American  people  is  intoxicated  by 
passion,  or  carried  away  by  the  impetuosity  of  its  ideas,  it  is 
checked  and  stopped  by  the  almost  invisible  influence  of  its 
legal  counsellors,  who  secretly  oppose  their  aristocratic  propen- 
sities to  its  democratic  instincts,  their  superstitious  attachment 
to  what  is  antique  to  its  love  of  novelty,  their  narrow  views  to  its 
immense  designs,  and  their  habitual  procrastination  to  its  ar- 
dent impatience. 

The  courts  of  justice  are  the  most  visible  organs  by  which  the 
legal  profession  is  enabled  to  control  the  democracy.  The 
judge  is  a  lawyer,  who,  independently  of  the  taste  for  regular- 
ity and  order  which  he  has  contracted  in  the  study  of  legislation, 
derives  an  additional  love  of  stability  from  his  own  inalienable 
functions.  His  legal  attainments  have  already  raised  him  to  a 
distinguished  rank  amongst  his  fellow-citizens;  his  political 
power  completes  the  distinction  of  his  station,  and  gives  him 
the  inclinations  natural  to  privileged  classes. 

Armed  with  the  power  of  declaring  the  laws  to  be  unconsti- 
tutional.a  the  American  magistrate  perpetually  interferes  in  po- 
litical afifairs.     He  cannot  force  the  people  to  make  laws,  but  at 

a  3ee  chapter  VI.  on  the  "  Judicial  Power  in  the  United  States," 


l» 


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Pa  ' 
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^■'■',  i. 


284 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


least  he  can  oblige  it  not  to  disobey  its  own  enactments ;  or  to 
act  inconsistently  with  its  own  principles.  I  am  aware  that  a 
secret  tendency  to  diminish  the  judicial  power  exists  in  the 
United  States,  and  by  most  of  the  constitutions  of  the  several 
States  the  Government  can,  upon  the  demand  of  the  two  houses 
of  the  legislature,  remove  the  judges  from  their  station.  By 
some  other  constitutions  the  members  of  the  tribunals  are 
elected,  and  they  are  even  subjected  to  frequent  re-elections.  I 
venture  to  predict  that  these  innovations  will  sooner  or  later 
be  attended  with  fatal  consequences,  and  that  it  will  be  found  out 
at  some  future  period  that  the  attack  which  is  made  upon  the 
judicial  power  has  affected  the  democratic  republic  itself. 

It  must  not,  however,  be  supposed  that  the  legal  spirit  of 
which  I  have  been  speaking  has  been  confined,  in  the  United 
States,  to  the  courts  of  justice ;  it  extends  far  beyond  them. 
As  the  lawyers  constitute  the  only  enlightened  class  which  the 
people  does  not  mistrust,  they  are  naturally  called  upon  to  oc- 
cupy most  of  the  public  stations.  They  fill  the  legislative  as- 
semblies, and  they  conduct  the  administration ;  they  conse- 
quently exercise  a  powerful  influence  upon  the  formation  of  the 
law,  and  upon  its  execution.  The  lawyers  are,  however,  obliged 
to  yield  to  the  current  of  public  opinion,  which  is  too  strong 
for  them  to  resist  it,  but  it  is  easy  to  find  indications  of  what 
their  conduct  would  be  if  they  were  free  to  act  as  they  chose. 
The  Americans,  who  have  made  such  copious  innovations  in 
their  political  legislation,  have  introduced  very  sparing  altera- 
tions in  their  civil  laws,  and  that  with  great  difficulty,  although 
those  laws  are  frequently  repugnant  to  their  social  condition. 
The  reason  of  this  is,  that  in  matters  of  civil  law  the  majority  is 
obliged  to  defer  to  the  authority  of  the  legal  profession,  and 
that  the  American  lawyers  are  disinclined  to  innovate  when 
they  are  left  to  their  own  choice. 

It  is  curious  for  a  Frenchman,  accustomed  to  a  very  different 
state  of  things,  to  hear  the  perpetual  complaints  which  are  made 
in  the  United  States  against  the  stationary  propensities  of  legal 
men,  and  their  prejudices  in  favor  of  existing  institutions. 

The  influence  of  the  legal  habits  which  are  common  in  Amer- 
ica extends  beyond  the  limits  I  have  just  pointed  out.  Scarcely 
any  question  arises  in  the  United  States  which  does  not  become, 
sooner  or  later,  a  subject  of  judicial  debate ;  hence  all  parties 
are  obliged  to  borrow  the  ideas,  and  even  the  language,  usual 


I" 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


285 


in  judicial  proceedings  in  their  daily  controversies.  As  most 
public  men  are,  or  have  been,  legal  practitioners,  they  introduce 
the  customs  and  technicalities  of  their  profession  into  the  affairs 
of  the  country.  The  jury  extends  this  habitude  to  all  classes. 
The  language  of  the  law  thus  becomes,  in  some  measure,  a 
vulgar  tongue ;  the  spirit  of  the  law,  which  is  produced  in  the 
schools  and  courts  of  justice,  gradually  penetrates  beyond  their 
walls  into  the  bosom  of  society,  where  it  descends  to  the  lowest 
classes,  so  that  the  whole  people  contracts  the  habits  and  the 
tastes  of  the  magistrate.  The  lawyers  of  the  United  States  form 
a  party  which  is  but  little  feared  and  scarcely  perceived,  which 
has  no  badge  peculiar  to  itself,  which  adapts  itself  with  great 
flexibility  to  the  exigencies  of  the  time,  and  accommodates  it- 
self to  all  the  movements  of  the  social  body ;  but  this  party  ex- 
tends over  the  whole  community,  and  it  penetrates  into  all 
classes  of  society ;  it  acts  upon  the  country  imperceptibly,  but 
it  finally  fashions  it  to  suit  its  purposes. 


Hi 


'i-\ 


Trial  by  Jury   in   the  United  States  Considered  as  a 
Political  Institution 

Trial  by  jury,  which  is  one  of  the  instruments  of  the  sovereignty  of  the 
people,  deserves  to  be  compared  with  the  other  laws  which  establish 
that  sovereignty — Composition  of  the  jury  in  the  United  States — 
Effect  of  trial  by  jury  upon  the  national  character — It  educates  the 
people — It  tends  to  establish  the  authority  of  the  magistrates  and 
to  extend  a  knowledge  of  law  among  the  people. 

Since  I  have  been  led  by  my  subject  to  recur  to  the  adminis- 
tration of  justice  in  the  United  States,  I  will  not  pass  over  this 
point  without  adverting  to  the  institution  of  the  jury.  Trial 
by  jury  may  be  considered  in  two  separate  points  of  view,  as 
a  judicial  and  as  a  political  institution.  If  it  entered  into  my 
present  purpose  to  inquire  how  far  trial  by  jury  (more  espe- 
cially in  civil  cases)  contributes  to  insure  the  best  administration 
of  justice,  I  adm  that  its  utility  might  be  contested.  As  the 
jury  was  first  introduced  at  a  time  when  society  was  in  an  un- 
civilized state,  and  when  courts  of  justice  were  merely  called 
upon  to  decide  on  the  evidence  of  facts,  it  is  not  an  easy  task 
to  adapt  it  to  the  wants  of  a  highly  civilized  community  when 
the  mutual  relations  of  men  are  multiplied  to  a  surprising  ex- 


ii! 


R.    ti 


1  I 


i 


.  ■  Pi 


286 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


tent,  and  have  assumed  the  enlightened  and  intellectual  char- 
acter of  the  age.fr 

My  present  object  is  to  consider  t'^e  jury  as  a  political  insti- 
tution, and  any  other  course  would  di  crt  ine  from  my  subject. 
Of  trial  by  jury,  considered  as  a  judicial  institution,  I  shall  here 
say  but  very  few  words.  When  the  English  adopted  trial  by 
jury  they  were  a  semi-barbarous  people ;  they  are  become,  in 
course  of  time,  one  of  the  most  enlightened  nations  of  the  earth  ; 
and  their  attachment  to  this  institution  seems  to  have  increased 
with  their  increasing  cultivation.  They  soon  spread  beyond 
their  insular  boundai  ies  to  every  corner  of  the  habitable  globe ; 
some  have  formed  colonies,  others  independent  states;  the 
mother-country  has  maintained  its  monarchical  constitution ; 
many  of  its  offspring  have  founded  powerful  republics ;  but 
wherever  the  English  have  been  they  have  boasted  of  the  priv- 
ilege of  trial  by  jury.c  They  have  established  it,  or  hastened 
to  re-establish  it,  in  all  their  settlements.  A  judicial  institution 
which  obtains  the  suffrages  of  a  great  people  for  so  long  a  series 
of  ages,  which  is  zealously  renewed  at  every  epoch  of  civiliza- 
tion, in  all  the  climates  of  the  earth  and  under  every  form  of 
human  government,  cannot  be  contrary  to  the  spirit  of  justice.^ 


b  The  investigation  of  trial  by  jury 
as  a  judicial  institution,  and  the  appre- 
ciation of  its  effects  in  the  United 
States,  together  with  the  advantages  the 
Americans  have  derived  from  it,  would 
suffice  to  form  a  book,  and  a  book  upon 
a  very  "tseful  and  curious  subject.  The 
State  ol  Louisiana  would  in  particular 
afford  the  curious  nhenomenon  of  a 
French  and  English  legislation,  as  well 
as  a  French  and  English  population, 
which  are  gradually  combining  with 
each  other.  See  the  "  Digestc  des  Lois 
de  la  I.ouisianc,"  in  two  volumes ;  and 
the  "  Traite  sur  Ies  Regies  des  Actions 
civiles,"  printed  in  French  and  English 
at  New  Orleans  in   1830. 

c  All  the  English  and  American  jur- 
ists are  unanimous  upon  this  head.  Mr. 
Story,  judge  of  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  Onited  States,  speaks,  in  his  "  Trea- 
tise on  the  Federal  Constitution,"  of  the 
advantages  of  trial  by  jury  in  civil 
cases:—  The  inestimable  privilege  of 
a  trial  by  jury  in  civil  cases— a  privilege 
scarcely  inferior  to  that  in  criminal 
cases,  which  is  counted  by  all  persons 
to  be  essential  to  political  and  civil  lib- 
erty. .  .  ."  (Story,  book  iii.,  chap, 
xxxviii.) 

d  If  it  were  our  province  to  point  out 
the  utility  of  the  jury  as  a  judicial  insti- 
tution in  this  place,  much  might  be 
said,  and  the  following  arguments  might 
be  brought   forward  amongst   others:— 

By  introducing  the  jury  into  the  busi- 


ness of  the  courts  you  are  enabled  to 
diminish  the  nimiber  of  judges,  which 
is  a  very  great  advantage.  When  judges 
are  very  numenms,  death  is  perpetually 
thinning  the  ranks  of  the  judicial  func- 
tionaries, and  laying  places  vacant  for 
newcomers.  The  ambition  of  the  mag- 
istrates is  therefore  continually  excited, 
and  they  are  naturally  made  dependent 
upon  the  will  of  the  majority,  or  the 
individual  who  fills  up  the  vacant  ap- 
pointments; the  officers  of  the  court 
then  rise  like  the  officers  of  an  army. 
This  state  of  things  is  entirely  contrary 
to  the  sound  administration  of  justice, 
and  to  the  intentions  of  the  legislator. 
The  office  of  a  judge  is  made  in.Tlienable 
in  order  that  he  may  remain  independ- 
ent: but  of  what  advantage  is  it  that  his 
independence  should  be  protected  if  he 
be  tempted  to  sacrifice  it  of  his  own  ac- 
cord? When  judges  are  very  numerous 
many  of  them  must  necessarily  be  in- 
capable of  performing  their  important 
duties,  for  a  great  magistrate  is  a  man 
of  no  common  powers;  and  I  am  in- 
clined to  believe  that  a  half-enlightened 
tribunal  is  the  worst  of  all  instruments 
for  attaining  those  objects  which  it  is 
the  puroose  of  courts  of  justice  to  ac- 
Cvimplish.  For  my  own  part,  I  had 
rather  submit  the  decision  of  a  case  to 
ignorant  jurors  directed  by  a  skilful 
judge  than  to  judges  a  majority  of 
whom  are  imperfectly  acquainted  with 
jurisprudence  and  with  the  laws. 


I 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


287 


I  turn,  however,  from  this  part  of  the  subject.  To  look  upon 
the  jury  as  a  mere  judicial  institution  is  to  confine  our  attention 
to  a  very  narrow  view  of  it ;  for  however  great  its  influence  may 
be  upon  the  decisions  of  the  lavvr  courts,  that  influence  is  very 
subordinate  to  the  powerful  effects  which  it  produces  on  the 
destinies  of  the  community  at  large.  The  jury  is  above  all  a 
political  institution,  and  it  must  be  regarded  in  this  light  in  order 
to  be  duly  appreciated. 

By  the  jury  I  mean  a  certain  number  of  citizens  chosen  in- 
discriminately, and  invested  .with  a  temporary  right  of  judging. 
Trial  by  jury,  as  applied  to  the  repression  of  crime,  appears  to 
me  to  introduce  an  eminently  republican  element  into  the  gov- 
ernment upon  the  following  grounds : — 

The  institution  of  the  jury  may  be  aristocratic  or  democratic, 
according  to  the  class  of  society  from  which  the  jurors  are  se- 
lected; but  it  always  preserves  its  republican  character,  inas- 
much as  it  places  the  real  direction  of  society  in  the  hands  of 
the  governed,  or  Of  a  portion  of  the  governed,  instead  of  leav- 
ing it  under  the  authority  of  the  Government.  Force  is  never 
more  than  a  transient  element  of  success ;  and  after  force  comes 
the  notion  of  right.  A  government  which  should  only  be  able 
to  crush  its  enemies  upon  a  field  of  battle  would  very  soon  be 
destroyed.  The  true  sanction  of  political  laws  is  to  be  found  in 
penal  legislation,  and  if  that  sanction  be  wanting  the  law  will 
sooner  or  later  lose  its  cogency.  He  who  punishes  infractions 
of  the  law  is  therefore  the  real  master  of  society.  Now  the  in- 
stitution of  the  jury  raises  the  people  itself,  or  at  least  a  class 
of  citizens,  to  the  bench  of  judicial  authority.  The  institution 
of  the  jury  consequently  invests  the  people,  or  that  class  of 
citizens,  with  the  direction  of  society.^ 

In  England  the  jury  is  returned  from  the  artistocratic  portion 
of  the  nation  ;f  the  aristocracy  makes  the  laws,  applies  the  laws, 
and  punishes  all  infractions  of  the  laws ;  everything  is  estab- 
lished upon  a  consistent  footing,  and  England  may  with  truth 


'If  i' 


I 


i*1  % 

'■'      I  -> 

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I'i 


e  An  important  remark  must,  how- 
ever, be  made.  Trial  by  jury  does  un- 
questionably invest  the  people  with  a 
general  control  over  the  actions  of  cit- 
izens, but  it  does  not  furnish  means  of 
exercisinf?  this  control  in  all  cases,  or 
with  an  absolute  authority.  When  an 
absolute  monarch  has  the  right  of  try- 
ing offences  by  his  representatives,  the 
fate  of  the  prisoner  is,  as  it  were,  de- 
cided beforehand.    But  even  if  the  peo- 


ple were  predisposed  to  convict,  the 
composition  and  the  non-responsibility 
of  the  jury  would  still  afford  some 
chances  favorable  to  the  protection  of 
innocence. 

f  [This_  may  be  true  to  some  extent  of 
special  juries,  but  not  of  common 
juries.  The  author  seems  not  to  have 
been  aware  that  the  qualifications  of 
jurors  in  England  vary  exceedingly.] 


'1 


288 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


be  said  to  constitute  an  aristocratic  republic.  In  the  United 
States  the  same  system  is  appHed  to  the  whole  people.  Every 
American  citizen  is  qualified  to  be  an  elector,  a  juror,  and  is 
eligible  to  office.g  The  system  of  the  jury,  as  it  is  understood 
in  America,  appears  to  me  to  be  as  direct  and  as  extreme  a 
consequence  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  as  universal  suf- 
frage. These  institutions  are  two  instruments  of  equal  power, 
which  contribute  to  the  supremacy  of  the  majority.  All  the 
sovereigns  who  have  chosen  to  govern  by  their  own  authority, 
and  to  direct  society  instead  of  obeying  its  directions,  have  de- 
stroyed or  enfeebled  the  institution  of  the  jury.  The  monarchs 
of  the  House  of  Tudor  sent  to  prison  jurors  who  refused  to  con- 
vict, and  Napoleon  caused  them  to  be  returned  by  his  agents. 

However  clear  most  of  these  truths  may  seem  to  be,  they 
do  not  command  universal  assent,  and  in  France,  at  least,  the  in- 
stitution of  trial  by  jury  is  still  very  imperfectly  understood. 
If  the  question  arises  as  to  the  proper  qualification  of  jurors,  it 
is  confined  to  a  discussion  of  the  intelligence  and  knowledge  of 
the  citizens  who  may  be  returned,  as  if  the  jury  was  merely  a 
judicial  institution.  This  appears  to  me  to  be  the  least  part  of 
the  subject.  The  jury  is  pre-eminently  a  political  institution ; 
it  must  be  regarded  as  one  form  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  peo- 
ple ;  when  that  sovereignty  is  repudiated,  it  must  be  rejected, 
or  it  must  be  adapted  to  the  laws  by  which  that  sovereignty  is 
established.  The  jury  is  that  portion  of  the  nation  to  which  the 
execution  of  the  laws  is  entrusted,  as  the  Houses  of  Parlia- 
ment constitute  that  part  of  the  nation  which  makes  the  laws ; 
and  in  order  that  society  may  be  governed  with  consistency 
and  uniformity,  the  list  of  citizens  qualified  to  serve  on  juries 
must  increase  and  diminish  with  the  list  of  electors.  This  I  hold 
to  be  the  point  of  view  most  worthy  of  the  attention  of  the  legis- 
lator, and  all  that  remains  is  merely  accessory. 

I  am  so  entirely  convinced  that  the  jury  is  pre-eminently  a 
political  institution  that  I  still  consider  it  in  this  light  when  it  is 
applied  in  civil  causes.  Laws  are  always  unstable  unless  they 
are  founded  upon  the  manners  of  a  nation ;  manners  are  the 
only  durable  and  resisting  power  in  a  people.  When  the  jury 
is  reserved  for  criminal  offences,  the  people  only  witnesses  its 
occasional  action  in  certain  particular  cases;  the  ordinary 
course  of  life  goes  on  without  its  interference,  and  it  is  consid- 

gSee  Appendix,  Q. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


989 


ered  as  an  instrument,  but  not  as  the  only  instrument,  of  ob- 
taining justice.  This  is  true  d  fortiori  when  the  jury  is  only  ap- 
plied to  certain  criminal  causes. 

When,  on  the  contrary,  the  influence  of  the  jury  is  extended 
to  civil  causes,  its  application  is  constantly  palpable ;  it  affects 
all  the  interests  of  the  community ;  everyone  co-operates  in  its 
work :  it  thus  penetrates  into  all  the  usages  of  life,  it  fashions  the 
human  mind  to  its  peculiar  forms,  and  is  gradually  associated 
with  the  idea  of  justice  itself. 

The  institution  of  the  jury,  if  confined  to  criminal  causes,  is 
always  in  danger,  but  when  once  it  is  introduced  into  civil  pro- 
ceedings it  defies  the  aggressions  of  time  and  of  man.  If  it  had 
been  as  easy  to  remove  the  jury  from  the  manners  as  from  the 
laws  of  England,  it  would  have  perished  under  Henry  VIII, 
and  Elizabeth,  and  the  civil  jury  did  in  reality,  at  that  period, 
save  the  liberties  of  the  country.  In  whatever  manner  the  jury 
be  applied,  it  cannot  fail  to  exercise  a  powerful  influence  upon 
the  national  character;  but  this  influence  is  prodigiously  in- 
creased when  it  is  introduced  into  civil  causes.  The  jury,  and 
more  especially  the  jury  in  civil  cases,  serves  to  communicate 
the  spirit  of  the  judges  to  the  minds  of  all  the  citizens ;  and  this 
spirit,  with  the  habits  which  attend  it,  is  the  soundest  prepara- 
tion for  free  institutions.  It  imbues  all  classes  with  a  respect 
for  the  thing  judged,  and  with  the  notion  of  right.  If  these 
two  elements  be  removed,  the  love  of  independence  is  reduced 
to  a  mere  destructive  passion.  It  teaches  men  to  practice  equity, 
every  man  learns  to  judge  his  neighbor  as  he  would  himself  be 
judged ;  and  this  is  especially  true  of  the  jury  in  civil  causes, 
for,  whilst  the  number  of  persons  who  have  reason  to  apprehend 
a  criminal  prosecution  is  small,  every  one  is  liable  to  have  a 
I  civil  action  brought  against  him.  The  jury  teaches  every  man 
not  to  recoil  before  the  responsibility  of  his  own  actions,  and  im- 
presses him  with  that  manly  confidence  without  which  political 
virtue  cannot  exist.  It  invests  each  citizen  with  a  kind  of  mag- 
istracy, it  makes  them  all  feel  the  duties  which  they  are  bound 
to  discharge  towards  society,  and  the  part  which  they  take  in 
the  Government.  By  obliging  men  to  turn  their  attention  to 
affairs  which  are  not  exclusively  their  own,  it  rubs  off  that  in- 
dividual egotism  which  is  the  rust  of  society. 

The  jury  contributes  most  powerfully  to  form  the  judgment 
and  to  increase  the  natural  intelligence  of  a  people,  and  this  is. 
Vou  I. — 19 


f     I 


If 
ill ''  '  I 


I      'fl 


I* 


111 


390 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


ii/^f-M 


in  my  opinion,  its  greatest  advantage.  It  may  be  regarded  as 
a  gratuitous  public  school  ever  open,  in  which  every  juror  learns 
to  exercise  his  rights,  enters  into  daily  communication  with  the 
most  learned  and  enlightened  members  of  the  upper  classes, 
and  becomes  practically  acquainted  with  the  laws  of  his  coun- 
try, which  are  brought  within  the  reach  of  his  capacity  by  the 
efforts  of  the  bar,  the  advice  of  tht  judge,  and  even  by  the 
passions  of  the  parties.  I  think  that  the  practical  intelligence 
and  political  good  sense  of  the  Americans  are  mainly  attribut- 
able to  the  long  use  which  they  have  made  of  the  jury  in  civil 
causes.  I  do  not  know  whether  the  jury  is  useful  to  those  who 
are  in  litigation ;  but  I  am  certain  it  is  highly  beneficial  to  those 
who  decide  the  litigation ;  and  I  look  upon  it  as  one  of  the  most 
efficacious  means  for  the  education  of  the  people  which  society 
can  employ. 

What  I  have  hitherto  said  applies  to  all  nations,  but  the  re- 
mark I  am  now  about  to  make  is  peculiai  to  the  Americans  and 
to  democratic  peoples.  I  have  already  observed  that  in  de- 
mocracies the  members  of  the  legal  profession  and  the  magis- 
trates constitute  the  only  aristocratic  body  which  can  check  the 
irregularities  of  the  people.  This  aristocracy  is  invested  with 
no  physical  power,  but  it  exercises  its  conservative  influence 
upon  the  minds  of  men,  an1  the  most  abundant  source  of  its  au- 
thority is  the  institution  oi  the  civil  jury.  In  criminal  causes, 
when  society  is  armed  against  a  single  individual,  the  jury  is 
apt  to  look  upon  the  judge  as  the  passive  instrument  of  social 
power,  and  to  mistrust  his  advice.  Moreover,  criminal  causes 
are  entirely  founded  upon  the  evidence  of  facts  which  common 
sense  can  readily  appreciate ;  upon  this  ground  the  judge  and 
the  jury  are  equal.  Such,  however,  is  not  the  case  in  civil 
causes ;  then  the  judge  appears  as  a  disinterested  arbiter  be- 
tween the  conflicting  passions  of  the  parties.  The  jurors  look 
up  to  him  with  confidence  and  listen  to  him  with  respect,  for 
in  this  instance  their  intelligence  is  completely  under  the  con- 
trol of  his  learning.  It  is  the  judge  who  sums  up  the  various 
arguments  with  which  their  memory  has  been  wearied  out,  and 
who  guides  them  through  the  devious  course  of  the  proceed- 
ings; he  points  their  attention  to  the  exact  question  of  fact 
which  they  are  called  upon  to  solve,  and  he  puts  the  answer  to 
the  question  of  law  into  their  mouths.  His  influence  upon 
their  verdict  is  almost  unlimited. 


I  ! 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


t9f 


If  I  am  called  upon  to  explain  why  I  am  but  little  moved  by 
the  arguments  derived  from  the  ignorance  of  jurors  in  civil 
causes,  I  reply,  that  in  those  proceedings,  whenever  the  question 
to  be  solved  is  not  a  mere  question  of  fact,  the  jury  has  only  the 
semblance  of  a  judicial  body.  The  jury  sanctions  the  decision 
of  the  judge,  they  by  the  authority  of  society  which  they  repre- 
sent, and  he  by  that  of  reason  and  of  law./* 

In  England  and  in  America  the  judges  exercise  an  influence 
upon  criminal  trials  which  the  French  judges  have  never  pos- 
sessed. The  reason  of  this  difference  may  easily  be  discovered ; 
the  English  and  American  magistrates  establish  their  authority 
in  civil  causes,  and  only  transfer  it  afterwards  to  tribunals  of  an- 
other kind,  where  that  authority  was  not  acquired.  In  some 
cases  (and  they  are  frequently  the  most  important  ones)  the 
American  judges  have  the  right  of  deciding  causes  alone.* 
Upon  these  occasions  they  are  accidentally  placed  in  the  posi- 
tion which  the  French  judges  habitually  occupy,  but  they  are 
invested  with  far  more  power  than  the  latter;  they  arc  still 
surrounded  by  the  reminiscence  of  the  jury,  and  their  judgment 
has  almost  as  much  authority  as  the  voice  of  the  community  at 
large,  represented  by  that  institution.  Their  influence  extends 
beyond  the  limits  of  the  courts ;  in  the  recreations  of  private  life 
as  well  as  in  the  turmoil  of  public  business,  abroad  and  in  the 
legislative  assemblies,  the  American  judge  is  constantly  sur- 
rounded by  men  who  are  accustomed  to  regard  his  intelligence 
as  superior  to  their  own,  and  after  having  exercised  his  power  in 
the  decision  of  causes,  he  continues  to  influence  the  habits  of 
thought  and  the  characters  of  the  individuals  who  took  a  part 
in  his  judgment. 

The  jury,  then,  which  seems  to  restrict  the  rights  of  magis- 
tracy, does  in  reality  consolidate  its  power,  and  in  no  country 
are  the  judges  so  powerful  as  there,  where  the  people  partakes 
their  privileges.  It  is  more  especially  by  means  of  the  jury  in 
civil  causes  that  the  American  magistrates  imbue  all  classes  of 
society  with  the  spirit  of  their  profession.  Thus  the  jury,  which 
is  the  most  energetic  means  of  making  the  people  rule,  is  also 
the  most  efficacious  means  of  teachini;  ^^  to  rule  well. 


h  See  Appendix,  R. 

i  The    Federal   judges    decide    upon 


their  own  authority  almost  all  the  ques- 
tions most  important  to  the  country. 


I 


n 


M 


CHAPTER  XVII 


PRINCIPAL  CAUSES  WHICH  TEND  TO   MAINTAIN  THE 
DEMOCRATIC   REPUBLIC   IN   THE   UNITED   STATES 

A  DEMOCRATIC  republic  subsists  in  the  United  States, 
and  the  principal  object  of  this  book  has  been  to  account 
for  the  fact  of  its  existence.  Several  of  the  causes  which 
contribute  to  maintain  the  institutions  of  America  have  been 
involuntarily  passed  by  or  only  hinted  at  as  I  was  borne  along 
by  my  subject.  Others  I  have  been  unable  to  discuss,  and  those 
on  which  I  have  dwelt  most  are,  as  it  were,  buried  in  the  details 
of  the  former  parts  of  this  work.  I  think,  therefore,  that  before 
I  proceed  to  speak  of  the  future,  I  cannot  do  better  than  collect 
within  a  small  compass  the  reasons  which  best  explain  the  pres- 
ent. In  this  retrospective  chapter  I  shall  be  succinct,  for  I  shall 
take  care  to  remind  the  reader  very  summarily  of  what  he  al- 
ready knows ;  and  I  shall  only  select  the  most  prominent  of 
those  facts  which  I  have  not  yet  pointed  out. 

All  the  causes  which  contribute  to  the  maintenance  of  the 
democratic  republic  in  the  United  States  are  reducible  to  three 
heads : — 

I.  The  peculiar  and  accidental  situation  in  which  Provi- 
dence has  placed  the  Americans. 

II.  The  laws. 

III.  The  manners  and  customs  of  the  people. 

Accidental  or  Providential  Causes  Which  Contribute 
TO  the  Maintenance  of  the  Democratic  Republic  in 
THE  United  States 

The  Union  has  no  neighbors — No  metropolis — The  Americans  have 
had  the  chances  of  birth  in  their  favor — America  an  empty  country 
— How  this  circumstance  contributes  powerfully  to  the  maintenance 
of  the  democratic  republic  in  America — How  the  American  wilds 
are  peopled — Avidity  of  the  Anglo-Americans  in  taking  possession 
of  the  solitudes  of  the  New  World — Influence  of  physical  prosperity 
upon  the  political  opinions  of  the  Americans. 
A  thousand  circumstances,  independent  of  the  will  of  man, 

concur  to  facilitate  the  maintenance  of  a  democratic  republic 

292 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


'93 


in  the  United  States.  Some  of  these  peculiarities  arc  known, 
the  others  may  easily  be  pointed  out ;  but  I  shall  confine  my- 
self to  the  most  prominent  amongst  them. 

The  Americans  have  no  neighbors,  and  consequently  they 
have  no  great  wars,  or  financial  crises,  or  inroads,  or  conquest 
to  dread;  they  require  neither  great  taxes,  nor  great  armies, 
nor  great  generals ;  and  they  have  nothing  to  fear  from  a 
scourge  which  is  more  formidable  to  republics  than  all  these 
evils  combined,  namely,  military  glory.  It  is  impossible  to 
deny  the  inconceivable  influence  which  military  glory  exercises 
upon  the  spirit  of  a  nation.  General  Jackson,  whom  the  Amer- 
icans have  twice  elected  to  the  head  of  their  Government,  is 
a  man  of  a  violent  temper  and  mediocre  talents ;  no  one  cir- 
cumstance in  the  whole  course  of  his  career  ever  proved  that 
he  is  qualified  to  govern  a  free  people,  and  indeed  the  majority 
of  the  enlightened  classes  of  the  Union  has  always  been  op- 
posed to  him.  But  he  was  raised  to  the  Presidency,  and  has 
been  maintained  in  that  lofty  station,  solely  by  the  recollection 
of  a  victory  which  he  gained  twenty  years  ago  under  the  walls 
of  New  Orleans,  a  victory  which  was,  however,  a  very  ordinary 
achievement,  and  which  could  only  be  remembered  in  a  country 
where  battles  are  rare.  Now  the  people  which  is  thus  carried 
away  by  the  illusions  of  glory  is  unquestionably  the  most  cold 
and  calculating,  the  most  unmilitary  (if  I  may  use  the  expres- 
sion), and  the  most  prosaic  of  all  the  peoples  of  the  earth. 

America  has  no  great  capital  a  city,  whose  influence  is  di- 


oThe  United  States  have  no  metrop- 
olis, but  they  already  contain  several 
very  large  cities.  Philadelphia  reckoned 
161,000  inhabitants  and  New  York  aoa,- 
000  in  the  year  1830.  The  lower  orders 
which  inhaoit  these  cities  constitute  a 
rabble  even  more  formidable  than  the 
populace  of  European  towns.  They 
consist  of  freed  blacks  in  the  first  place, 
who  are  condemned  by  the  laws  and  by 
public  opinion  to  a  hereditary  state  of 
misery  and  depradation.  They  also  con- 
tain a  multitude  of  Europeans  who  have 
been  driven  to  the  shores  of  the  New 
World  by  their  misfortunes  or  their 
misconduct;  and  these  men  inoculate 
the  United  States  with  all  our  vices, 
without  bringing  with  them  any  of  those 
interests  which  counteract  their  baneful 
influence.  As  inhabitants  of  a  country 
where  they  have  no  civil  rights,  they 
are  ready  to  turn  all  the  passions  which 
agitate  the  community  to  their  own  ad- 
vantage; thus,  within  the  last  few 
months  serious  riots  have  broken  out  in 
Philadelphia  and  in  New  York.  Dis- 
turbances of  this  kind  are  unknown  in 
the  rest  of  the  country,  which  is  nowise 
alarmed  by  them,   because  the  popula- 


tion of  the  cities  has  hitherto  exercised 
neither  power  nor  influence  over  the 
rural  districts.  Nevertheless,  I  look 
upon  the  size  of  certain  American  cities, 
and  especially  on  the  nature  of  their 
population,  as  a  real  danger  which 
threatens  the  future  security  of  the  dem- 
ocratic republics  of  the  New  World; 
and  I  venture  to  predict  that  they  will 
nerish  from  this  circumstance  unless 
the  government  succeeds  in  creating  an 
armed  force,  which,  whilst  it  remains 
under  the  control  of  the  majority  of  the 
nation,  will  be  independent  of  the  town 
population,  and  able  to  repress  its  ex- 
cesses. 

[The  population  of  the  city  of  New 
York  had  risen,  in  1870,  to  942,392,  and 
that  of  Philadelphia  to  674,022.  Brook- 
lyn, which  may  be  said  to  form  part 
of  New  York  city,  has  a  population  of 
396,099,  in  addition  to  that  of  New  York. 
The  frequent  disturbances  in  the  great 
cities  of  America,  and  the  excessive  cor- 
ruption of  their  local  governments — 
over  which  there  is  no  effectual  control 
—are  amongst  the  greatest  evils  and 
dangers  of  the  country.] 


M  i[ 


) 


a94 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


t.' 


^ 


"'  t  i'i 


rectly  or  indirectly  felt  over  the  whole  extent  of  the  country, 
which  I  hold  to  be  one  of  the  first  causes  of  the  maintenance 
of  republican  institutions  in  the  United  States.  In  cities  men 
cannot  be  prevented  from  concerting  together,  and  from 
awakening  a  mutual  excitement  which  prompts  sudden  and 
passionate  resolutions.  Cities  may  be  looked  upon  as  large 
assemblies,  of  which  all  the  inhabitants  are  members ;  their  pop- 
ulace exercises  a  prodigious  influence  upon  the  magistrates., 
and  frequently  executes  its  own  wishes  without  their  interven- 
tion. 

To  subject  the  provinces  to  the  metropolis  is  therefore  not 
only  to  place  the  destiny  of  the  empire  in  the  hands  of  a  portion 
of  the  community,  which  may  be  reprobated  as  unjust,  but 
to  place  it  in  the  hands  of  a  populace  acting  under  its  own 
impulses,  which  must  be  avoided  as  dangerous.  The  pre- 
ponderance of  capital  cities  is  therefore  a  serious  blow  upon 
the  representative  system,  and  it  exposes  modern  republics  to 
the  same  defect  as  the  republics  of  antiquity,  which  all  perished 
from  not  having  been  acquainted  with  that  form  of  government. 

It  would  be  easy  for  me  to  adduce  a  great  number  of  sec- 
ondary causes  which  have  contributed  to  establish,  and  which 
concur  to  maintain,  the  democratic  republic  of  the  United 
States.  But  I  discern  two  principal  circumstances  amongst 
these  favorable  elements,  which  I  hasten  to  point  out.  I  have 
already  observed  that  the  origin  of  the  American  settlements 
may  be  looked  upon  as  the  first  and  most  efficacious  cause 
to  which  the  present  prosperity  of  the  United  States  may  be 
attributed.  The  Americans  had  the  chances  of  birth  in  their 
favor,  and  their  forefathers  imported  that  equality  of  condi- 
tions into  the  country  whence  the  democratic  republic  has  very 
naturally  taken  its  rise.  Nor  was  this  all  they  did ;  for  besides 
this  republican  condition  of  society,  the  early  settlers  be- 
queathed to  their  descendants  those  customs,  manners,  and 
opinions  which  contribute  most  to  the  success  of  a  republican 
form  of  government.  When  I  reflect  upon  the  consequences 
of  this  primary  circumstance,  methinks  I  see  the  destiny  of 
America  embodied  in  the  first  Puritan  who  landed  on  those 
shores,  just  as  the  human  race  was  represented  by  the  first  man. 

The  chief  circumstance  which  has  favored  the  establishment 
and  the  maintenance  of  a  democratic  republic  in  the  United 
States  is  the  nature  of  the  territory  which  the  Americans  in- 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


29s 


habit.  Their  ancestors  gave  them  the  love  of  equaUty  and 
of  freedom,  but  God  himself  gave  them  the  means  of  remain- 
ing equal  and  free,  by  placing  them  upon  a  boundless  con- 
tinent, which  is  open  to  their  exertions.  General  prosperity 
is  favorble  to  the  stability  of  all  governments,  but  more  par- 
ticularly of  a  democratic  constitution,  which  depends  upon  the 
dispositions  of  the  majority,  and  more  particularly  of  that  por- 
tion of  the  community  which  is  most  exposed  to  feel  the  pres- 
sure of  want.  When  the  people  rules,  it  must  be  rendered 
happy,  or  it  will  overturn  the  State,  and  misery  is  apt  to  stimu- 
late it  to  those  excesses  to  which  ambition  rouses  kings.  The 
physical  causes,  independent  of  the  laws,  which  contribute  to 
promote  general  prosperity,  are  more  numerous  in  America 
than  they  have  ever  been  in  any  other  country  in  the  world,  at 
any  other  period  of  history.  In  the  United  States  not  only  is 
legislation  democratic,  but  nature  herself  favors  the  cause  of 
the  people. 

In  what  part  of  human  tradition  can  be  found  anything  at 
all  similar  to  that  which  is  occurring  under  our  eyes  in  North 
America?  The  celebrated  communities  of  antiquity  were  all 
founded  in  the  midst  of  hostile  nations,  which  they  were  obliged 
to  subjugate  before  they  could  flourish  in  their  place.  Even  the 
moderns  have  found,  in  some  parts  of  South  America,  vast 
regions  inhabited  by  a  people  of  inferior  civilization,  but  which 
occupied  and  cultivated  the  soil.  To  found  their  new  states 
it  was  necessary  to  extirpate  or  to  subdue  a  numerous  popula- 
tion, until  civilization  has  been  made  to  blush  for  their  success. 
But  North  America  was  only  inhabited  by  wandering  tribes, 
who  took  no  thought  of  the  natural  riches  of  the  soil,  and  that 
vast  country  was  still,  properly  speaking,  an  empty  continent, 
a  desert  land  awaiting  its  inhabitants. 

Everything  is  extraordinary  in  America,  the  social  condition 
of  the  inhabitants,  as  well  as  the  laws ;  but  the  soil  upon  which 
these  institutions  are  founded  is  more  extraordinary  than  all 
the  rest.  When  man  was  first  placed  upon  the  earth  by  the 
Creator,  the  earth  was  inexhaustible  in  its  youth,  but  man 
was  weak  and  ignorant ;  and  when  he  had  learned  to  explore 
the  treasures  which  it  contained,  hosts  of  his  fellow  creatures 
covered  its  surface,  and  he  was  obliged  to  earn  an  asylum 
for  repose  and  for  freedom  by  the  sword.  At  that  same  period 
North  America  was  discovered,  as  if  it  had  been  kept  in  reserve 


r. 


/ \  hi 


■.  i 


Mf 


II 


296 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


I      I 


• 


by  the  Deity,  and  had  just  risen  from  beneath  the  waters  of  the 
deluge. 

That  continent  still  presents,  as  it  did  in  the  primeval  time, 
rivers  which  rise  from  never-failing  sources,  green  and  moist 
solitudes,  and  fields  which  the  ploughshare  of  the  husband- 
man has  never  turned.  In  this  state  it  is  offered  to  man,  not  in 
the  barbarous  and  isolated  condition  of  the  early  ages,  but  to 
a  being  who  is  already  in  possession  of  the  most  potent  secrets 
of  the  natural  world,  who  is  united  to  his  fellow-men,  and 
instructed  by  the  experience  of  fifty  centuries.  At  this  very 
time  thirteen  millions  of  civilized  Europeans  are  peaceably 
spreading  over  those  fertile  plains,  with  whose  resources  and 
whose  extent  they  are  not  yet  themselves  accurately  acquainted. 
Three  or  four  thousand  soldiers  drive  the  wandering  races  of 
the  aborigines  before  them  ;  these  are  followed  by  the  pioneers, 
who  pierce  the  woods,  scare  off  the  beasts  of  prey,  explore  the 
courses  of  the  inland  streams,  and  make  ready  the  triumphal 
procession  of  civilization  across  the  waste. 

The  favorable  influence  of  the  temporal  prosperity  of  Amer- 
ica upon  the  institutions  of  that  country  has  been  so  often 
described  by  others,  nd  adverted  to  by  myself,  that  I  shall 
not  enlarge  upon  it  '  r ,1  the  addition  of  a  few  facts.  An 
erroneous  notion  is  e*,  •  ,lly  entertained  that  the  deserts  of 
America  are  peopled  by  European  emigrants,  who  annually 
disembark  upon  the  coasts  of  the  New  World,  whilst  the 
American  population  increases  and  multiplies  upon  the  soil 
which  its  forefathers  tilled.  The  European  settler,  however, 
usually  arrives  in  the  United  States  without  friends,  and  some- 
times without  resources;  in  order  to  subsist  he  is  obliged 
to  work  for  hire,  and  he  rarely  proceeds  beyond  that  belt  of 
industrious  population  which  adjoins  the  ocean.  The  desert 
cannot  be  explored  without  capital  or  credit;  and  the  body 
must  be  accustomed  to  the  rigors  of  a  new  climate  before  it 
can  be  exposed  to  the  chances  of  forest  life.  It  is  the  Ameri- 
cans themselves  who  daily  quit  the  spots  which  gave  them 
birth  to  acquire  extensive  domains  in  a  remote  country.  Thus 
the  European  leaves  his  cottage  for  the  trans-Atlantic  shores ; 
and  the  American,  who  is  born  on  that  very  coast,  plunges  in 
his  turn  into  the  wilds  of  Central  America.  This  double 
emigration  is  incessant;  it  becfins  in  the  remotest  parts  of 
Europe,  it  crosses  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  and  it  advances  over 


l'  '  '    I: 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


297 


the  solitudes  of  the  New  World.  Millions  of  men  are  marching 
at  once  towards  the  same  horizon;  their  language,  their  re- 
ligion, their  manners  differ,  their  object  is  the  same.  The  gifts 
of  fortune  are  promised  in  the  West,  and  to  the  West  they 
bend  their  course.*' 

No  event  can  be  compared  with  this  continuous  removal 
of  the  human  race,  except  perhaps  those  irruptions  which  pre- 
ceded the  fall  of  the  Roman  Em-^ire.  Then,  as  well  as  now, 
generations  of  men  were  impellea  lorwards  in  the  same  direc- 
tion to  meet  and  struggle  on  the  same  spot;  but  the  designs 
of  Providence  were  not  the  same ;  then,  every  newcomer  was 
the  harbinger  of  destruction  and  of  death ;  now,  every  adven- 
turer brings  with  him  the  elements  of  prosperity  and  of  life. 
The  future  still  conceals  from  us  the  ulterior  consequences  of 
this  emigration  of  the  Americans  towards  the  West;  but  we 
can  readily  apprehend  its  more  immediate  results.  As  a  por- 
tion of  the  inhabitants  annually  leave  the  States  in  which  they 
were  born,  the  population  of  these  States  increases  very  slowly, 
although  they  have  long  been  established :  thus  in  Connecticut, 
which  only  contains  fifty-nine  inhabitants  to  the  square  mile, 
the  population  has  not  increased  by  more  than  one-quarter 
in  forty  years,  whilst  that  of  England  has  been  augmented  by 
one-third  in  the  lapse  of  the  same  period.  The  European 
emigrant  always  lands,  therefore,  in  a  country  which  is  but 
half  full,  and  where  hands  are  in  request :  he  becomes  a  work- 
man in  easy  circumstances ;  his  son  goes  to  seek  his  fortune  in 
unpeopled  regions,  and  he  becomes  a  rich  landowner.  The 
former  amasses  the  capital  which  the  latter  invests,  and  the 
stranger  as  well  as  the  native  is  unacquainted  with  want. 

The  laws  of  the  United  States  are  extremely  favorable  to 
the  division  of  property ;  but  a  cause  which  is  more  powerful 
than  the  laws  prevents  property  from  being  divided  to  excess.c 
This  is  very  perceptible  in  the  States  which  are  beginning  to  be 
thickly  peopled ;  Massachusetts  is  the  most  populous  part  of 
the  Union,  but  it  contains  only  eighty  inhabitants  to  the  square 
mile,  which  is  muse  less  than  in  France,  where  162  are  reckoned 
to  the  same  extent  of  country.    But  in  Massachusetts  estates 


b  [The  number  of  foreign  immiKrants 
into  the  United  States  in  the  last  fifty 
years  (from  1820  to  1871)  is  stated  to  be 
9,556,007.  Of  these,  4.104.553  spoke  Enjr- 
lish— that  is,  they  came  from  Great  Bri- 
tain,  Ireland,  or  the   British  colonies; 


2,643,069  came  from  Germany  or  north- 
ern Europe;  and  about  half  a  million 
from  the  south  of  Europe.] 

c  In  New  England  the  estates  are 
exceedingly  small,  but  they  are  rarely 
subjected  to  further  division. 


5.1 


4) 


II" 


Si 


I 


!■!' 


'      it: 


298 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


'::;i 


k\ 


are  very  rarely  divided ;  the  eldest  son  takes  the  land,  and  the 
others  go  to  seek  their  fortune  in  the  desert.  The  law  has 
abolished  the  rights  of  primogeniture,  but  circumstances  have 
concurred  to  re-establish  it  under  a  form  of  which  none  can 
complain,  and  by  which  no  just  rights  are  impaired. 

A  single  fact  will  suffice  to  show  the  prodigious  number 
of  individuals  who  leave  New  England,  in  this  manner,  to 
settle  themselves  in  the  wilds.  We  were  assured  in  1830  that 
thirty-six  of  the  members  of  Congress  were  born  in  the  little 
State  of  Connecticut.  The  population  of  Connecticut,  which 
constitutes  only  one  forty-third  part  of  that  of  the  United 
States,  thus  furnished  one-eighth  of  the  whole  body  of  repre- 
sentatives. The  States  of  Connecticut,  however,  only  sends 
five  delegates  to  Congress;  and  the  thirty-one  others  sit  ftr 
the  new  Western  States.  If  these  thirty-one  individuals  had 
remained  in  Connecticut,  it  is  probable  that  instead  of  becom- 
ing rich  landowners  they  would  have  remained  humble  la- 
borers, that  they  would  have  lived  in  obscurity  without  being 
able  to  rise  into  public  life,  and  that,  far  from  becoming  useful 
members  of  the  legislature,  they  might  have  been  unruly  citi- 
zens. 

These  reflections  do  not  escape  the  observation  of  the  Amer- 
icans any  more  than  of  ourselves.  "  It  cannot  be  doubted," 
says  Chancellor  Kent  in  his  "  Treatise  on  American  Law," 
"  that  the  division  of  landed  estates  must  produce  great  evils 
when  it  is  carried  to  such  excess  as  that  each  parcel  of  land  is 
insufficient  to  support  a  family;  but  these  disadvantages  have 
never  been  felt  in  the  United  States,  and  many  generations 
must  elapse  before  they  can  be  felt.  The  extent  of  our  inhabited 
territory,  the  abundance  of  adjacent  land,  and  the  continual 
stream  of  emigration  flowing  from  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic 
towards  the  interior  of  the  country,  suffice  as  yet,  and  will  long 
suffice,  to  prevent  the  parcelling  out  of  estates." 

It  is  difficult  to  describe  the  rapacity  with  which  the  Ameri- 
can rushes  forward  to  secure  the  immense  booty  wh'ch  for- 
tune proffers  to  him.  In  the  pursuit  he  fearlessly  braves  the 
arrow  of  the  Indian  and  the  distempers  of  the  forest;  he  is 
unimpressed  by  the  silence  of  the  woods;  the  approach  of 
beasts  of  prey  does  not  disturb  him ;  for  he  is  goaded  onwards 
by  a  passion  more  intense  than  the  love  of  life.  Before  him 
lies  a  boundless  continent,  and  he  urges  onwards  as  if  time 


I  s- 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


299 


pressed,  and  he  was  afraid  of  finding  no  room  for  his  exertions. 
I  have  spoken  of  the  emigration  from  the  older  States,  but 
how  shall  I  describe  that  which  takes  place  fro*n  the  more 
recent  ones?  Fifty  years  have  scarcely  elapsed  since  that  of 
Ohio  was  founded;  the  greater  part  of  its  inhabitants  were 
not  born  within  its  confines;  its  capital  has  only  been  built 
thirty  years,  and  its  territory  is  still  covered  by  an  immense 
extent  of  uncultivated  fields;  nevertheless  the  population  of 
Ohio  is  already  proceeding  westward,  and  most  of  the  settlers 
who  descend  to  the  fertile  savannahs  of  Illinois  are  citizens  of 
Ohio.  These  men  left  their  first  country  to  improve  their  con- 
dition ;  they  quit  their  resting-place  to  ameliorate  it  still  more ; 
fortune  awaits  them  everywhere,  but  happiness  they  cannot 
attain.  The  desire  of  prosperity  is  become  an  ardent  and  rest- 
less passion  in  their  minds  which  grows  by  what  it  gains.  They 
early  broke  the  ties  which  bound  them  to  their  natal  earth, 
and  they  have  contracted  no  fresh  ones  on  their  way.  Emigra- 
tion was  at  first  necessary  to  them  as  a  means  of  subsistence ; 
and  it  soon  becomes  a  sort  of  game  of  chance,  which  they 
pursue  for  the  emotions  it  excites  as  much  as  for  the  gain  it 
procures. 

Sometimes  the  progress  of  man  is  so  rapid  that  the  desert 
reappears  behind  him.  The  woods  stoop  to  give  him  a  pas- 
sage, and  spring  up  again  when  he  has  passed.  It  is  not  un- 
common in  crossing  the  new  States  of  the  West  to  meet  with 
deserted  dwellings  in  the  midst  of  the  wilds ;  the  traveller  fre- 
quently discovers  the  vestiges  of  a  log  house  in  the  most  soli- 
tary retreats,  which  bear  witness  to  the  power,  and  no  less  to  the 
inconstancy  of  man.  In  these  abandoned  fields,  and  over  these 
ruins  of  a  day,  the  primeval  forest  soon  scatters  a  fresh  vegeta- 
tion, the  beasts  resume  the  haunts  which  were  once  their  own, 
and  Nature  covers  the  traces  of  man's  path  with  branches  and 
with  flowers,  which  obliterate  his  evanescent  track. 

I  remember  that,  in  crossing  one  of  the  woodland  districts 
which  still  cover  the  State  of  New  York,  I  reached  the  shores 
of  a  lake  embosomed  in  forests  coeval  with  the  world.  A 
small  island,  covered  with  woods  whose  thick  foliage  con- 
cealed its  banks,  rose  from  the  centre  of  the  waters.  Upon 
the  shores  of  the  lake  no  object  attested  the  presence  of  man 
except  a  column  of  smoke  which  might  be  seen  on  the  horizon 
rising  from  the  tops  of  the  trees  to  the  clouds,  and  seeming  to 


i'<idi 


n  1 1 


fi 


.11 


300 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


1 


If! 


hang  from  heaven  rather  than  to  be  mounting  to  the  sky.  An 
Indian  shallop  was  hauled  up  on  the  sand,  which  tempted  me 
to  visit  the  islet  that  had  first  attracted  my  attention,  and  in  a 
few  minutes  I  set  foot  upon  its  banks.  The  whole  island  formed 
one  of  those  delicious  solitudes  of  the  New  World  which  almost 
lead  civilized  man  to  regret  the  haunts  of  the  savage.  A  lux- 
uriant vegetation  bore  witness  to  the  incomparable  fruitfulness 
of  the  soil.  The  deep  silence  which  is  common  to  the  wilds  of 
North  America  was  only  broken  by  the  hoarse  cooing  of  the 
wood-pigeon,  and  the  tapping  of  the  woodpecker  upon  the 
bark  of  trees.  I  was  far  from  supposing  that  this  spot  had  ever 
been  inhabited,  so  completely  did  Nature  seem  to  be  left  to 
her  own  caprices ;  but  when  I  reached  the  centre  of  the  isle 
I  thought  that  I  discovered  some  traces  of  man.  I  then  pro- 
ceeded to  examine  the  surrounding  objects  with  care,  and  I 
soon  perceived  that  a  European  had  undoubtedly  been  led  to 
sjck  a  refuge  in  this  retreat.  Yet  what  changes  had  taken 
place  in  the  scene  of  his  labors !  The  logs  which  he  had  hastily 
hewn  to  build  himself  a  shed  had  sprouted  afresh ;  the  very 
props  were  intertwined  with  living  verdure,  and  his  cabin  was 
transformed  into  a  bower.  In  the  midst  of  these  shrubs  a  few 
stones  were  to  be  seen,  blackened  with  fire  and  sprinkled  with 
thin  ashes ;  here  the  hearth  had  no  doubt  been,  and  the  chim- 
ney in  falling  had  covered  it  with  rubbish.  I  stood  for  some 
time  in  silent  admiration  of  the  exuberance  of  Nature  and  the 
littleness  of  man:  and  when  I  was  obliged  to  leave  that  en- 
chanting solitude,  I  exclaimed  with  melancholy,  "  Are  ruins, 
then,  already  here  ?  " 

In  Europe  we  are  wont  to  look  upon  a  restless  disposition, 
an  unbounded  desire  of  riches,  and  an  excessive  love  of  inde- 
pendence, as  propensities  very  formidable  to  society.  Yet  these 
are  the  very  elements  which  ensure  a  long  and  peaceful  dura- 
tion to  the  republics  of  America.  Without  these  unquiet  pas- 
sions the  population  would  collect  in  certain  spots,  and  would 
soon  be  subject  to  wants  like  those  of  the  Old  World,  which 
it  is  difficult  to  satisfy ;  for  such  is  the  present  good  fortune  of 
the  New  World,  that  the  vices  of  its  inhabitants  are  scarcely 
less  favorable  to  society  than  their  virtues.  These  circumstances 
exercise  a  great  influence  on  the  estimation  in  which  human 
actions  are  held  in  the  two  hemispheres.  The  Americans  fre- 
quently term  what  we  should  call  cupidity  a  laudable  industry ; 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


301 


and  they  blame  as  faint-heartedness  what  we  consider  to  be  the 
virtue  of  moderate  desires. 

In  France,  simple  tastes,  orderly  manners,  domestic  affec- 
tions, and  the  attachments  which  men  feel  to  the  place  of  their 
birth,  are  looked  upon  as  great  guarantees  of  the  tranquillity 
and  happiness  of  the  State.  But  in  America  nothing  seems 
to  be  more  prejudicial  to  society  than  these  virtues.  The 
French  Canadians,  who  have  faithfully  preserved  the  traditions 
of  their  pristine  manners,  are  already  embarrassed  for  room 
upon  their  small  territory;  and  this  little  community,  which 
has  so  recently  begun  to  exist,  will  shortly  be  a  prey  to  the 
calamities  incident  to  old  nations.  In  Canada,  the  most  en- 
lightened, patriotic,  and  humane  inhabitants  make  extraordi- 
nary efforts  to  render  the  people  dissatisfied  with  those  simple 
enjoyments  which  still  content  it.  There,  the  seductions  of 
wealth  are  vaunted  with  as  much  zeal  as  the  charms  of  an 
honest  but  limited  income  in  the  Old  World,  and  more  exer- 
tions are  made  to  excite  the  passions  of  the  citizens  there  than 
to  calm  them  elsewhere.  If  we  listen  to  their  eulogies,  we  shall 
hear  that  nothing  is  more  praiseworthy  than  to  exchange  the 
pure  and  homely  pleasures  which  even  the  poor  man  tastes  in 
his  own  country  for  the  dull  delights  of  prosperity  under  a 
foreign  sky;  to  leave  the  patrimonial  hearth  and  the  turf  be- 
neath whic'"  his  forefathers  sleep;  in  short,  to  abandon  the 
living  and  the  dead  in  quest  of  fortune. 

At  the  present  time  America  presents  a  field  for  human 
effort  far  more  extensive  than  any  sum  of  labor  which  can 
be  applied  to  wor.<  i*.  In  America  too  much  knowledge  can- 
not be  diffused;  for  all  knowledge,  whilst  it  may  serve  him 
who  possesses  it,  tu/ns  also  to  the  advantage  of  those  who  are 
without  it.  New  wants  are  not  to  be  feared,  since  they  can  be 
satisfied  without  difficulty ;  the  growth  of  human  passions 
need  not  be  dreaded,  since  all  passions  may  find  an  easy  and  a 
legitimate  object;  nor  can  men  be  put  in  possession  of  too 
much  freedom,  since  they  are  scarcely  ever  tempted  to  misuse 
their  liberties. 

The  American  republics  of  the  present  day  are  like  com- 
panies of  adventurers  formed  to  explore  in  common  the  waste 
lands  of  the  New  World,  and  busied  in  a  flourishing  trade. 
The  passions  which  agitate  the  Americans  most  deeply  are 
not  their  political  but  their  commercial  passions ;  or,  to  speak 


!    ' 
■-•  (     ;. 

1:.  ■; 

■  ;               1 

|i* 

f  1,. 


■ '  I 


'ill, 


302 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


more  correctly,  they  introduce  the  habits  they  contract  in  busi- 
ness into  their  poHtical  Hfe.  They  love  order,  without  which 
affairs  do  not  prosper ;  and  they  set  an  especial  value  upon  a 
regular  conduct,  which  is  the  foundation  of  a  solid  business; 
they  prefer  the  good  sense  which  amasses  large  fortunes  to 
that  enterprising  spirit  which  frequently  dissipates  them ;  gen- 
eral ideas  alarm  their  minds,  which  are  accustomed  to  positive 
calculations,  and  they  hold  practice  in  more  honor  than  theory. 

It  is  in  America  that  one  learns  to  understand  the  influence 
which  physical  prosperity  exercises  over  political  actions,  and 
even  over  opinions  which  ought  to  acknowledge  no  sway  but 
that  of  reason;  and  it  is  more  especially  amongst  strangers 
that  this  truth  is  perceptible.  Most  of  the  European  emigrants 
to  the  New  World  carry  with  them  that  wild  love  of  inde- 
pendence and  of  change  which  our  calamities  are  so  apt  to 
engender.  I  sometimes  met  with  Europeans  in  the  United 
States  who  had  been  obliged  to  leave  their  own  country  on 
accou  jf  their  political  opinions.  They  all  astonished  me 
by  the  language  they  held,  but  one  of  them  surprised  me  more 
than  all  the  rest.  As  I  was  crossing  one  of  the  most  remote 
districts  of  Pennsylvania  I  was  benighted,  and  obliged  to  beg 
for  hospitality  at  the  gate  of  a  wealthy  planter,  who  was  a 
Frenchman  by  birth.  lie  bade  me  sit  down  beside  his  fire,  and 
we  began  to  talk  with  that  freedom  which  befits  persons  who 
meet  in  the  backwoods,  two  thousand  leagues  from  their  native 
country.  I  was  aware  that  my  host  had  been  a  great  leveller 
and  an  ardent  demagogue  forty  years  ago,  and  that  his  name 
was  not  unknown  to  fame.  I  was,  therefore,  not  a  little  sur- 
prised to  hear  him  discuss  the  rights  of  property  as  an  econo- 
mist or  a  landowner  might  have  done :  he  spoke  of  the  neces- 
sary gradations  which  fortune  establishes  among  men,  of 
obedience  to  established  laws,  of  the  influence  of  good  morals  in 
commonwealths,  and  of  the  support  which  religious  opinions 
give  to  order  and  to  freedom ;  he  even  went  to  far  as  to  quote 
an  evangelical  authority  in  corroboration  of  one  of  his  political 
tenets. 

I  listened,  and  marvelled  at  the  feebleness  of  human  reason. 
A  proposition  is  true  or  false,  but  no  art  can  prove  it  to  be  one 
or  the  other,  in  the  midst  of  the  uncertainties  of  science  and 
the  conflicting  lessons  of  experience,  until  a  new  incident  dis- 
perses the  clouds  of  doubt ;  I  was  poor,  I  become  rich,  and  I 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


303 


am  not  to  expect  that  prosperity  will  act  upon  my  conduct,  and 
leave  my  judgment  free ;  my  opinions  change  with  my  fortune, 
and  the  happy  circumstances  which  I  turn  to  my  advantage 
furnish  me  with  that  decisive  argument  which  was  before 
wanting. 

The  influence  of  prosperity  acts  still  more  freely  upon  the 
American  than  upon  strangers.  The  American  has  always 
seen  the  connection  of  public  order  and  public  prosperity,  in- 
timately united  as  they  are,  go  on  before  his  eyes ;  he  does  not 
conceive  that  one  can  subsist  without  the  other ;  he  has  there- 
fore nothing  to  forget ;  nor  has  he,  like  so  many  Europeans,  to 
unlearn  the  lessons  of  his  early  education. 


Influence  of  the  Laws  Upon  the  Maintenance  of  the 
Democratic  Republic  in  the  United  States 

Three  principal  causes  of  the  maintenance  of  the  democratic  republic 
— Federal   Constitutions — Municipal   institutions — ^Judicial   power. 

The  principal  aim  of  this  book  has  been  to  make  known  the 
laws  of  the  United  States;  if  this  purpose  has  been  accom- 
plished, the  reader  is  already  enabled  to  judge  for  himself  which 
are  the  laws  that  really  tend  to  maintain  the  democratic  repub- 
lic, and  which  endanger  its  existence.  If  I  have  not  succeeded 
in  explaining  this  in  the  whole  course  of  my  work,  I  cannot  hope 
to  do  so  within  the  limits  of  a  single  chapter.  It  is  not  my  in- 
tention to  retrice  the  path  I  have  already  pursued,  and  a  very 
few  lines  will  suffice  to  recapitulate  what  I  have  previously  ex- 
plained. 

Three  circumstances  seem  to  me  to  contribute  most  power- 
fully to  the  maintenance  of  the  democratic  republic  in  the 
United  States. 

The  first  is  that  Federal  form  of  Government  which  the 
Americans  have  adopted,  and  which  enables  the  Union  to  com- 
bine the  power  of  a  great  empire  with  the  security  of  a  small 
State. 

The  second  consists  in  those  municipal  institutions  which 
limit  the  despotism  of  the  majority,  and  at  the  same  time  im- 
part a  taste  for  freedom  and  a  knowledge  of  the  art  of  being 
free  to  the  people. 

The  third  is  to  be  met  with  in  the  constitution  of  the  judicial 


'il 


k 


I 


304 


Dli  TOCQUKVILLE 


power.  I  have  shown  in  what  manner  the  courts  of  justice  serve 
to  repress  the  excesses  of  detnocracy,  and  how  they  check  and 
direct  the  impulses  of  the  majority  without  stopping  its  activity. 


Influence  of  Manners  Upon  the  Maintenance  of  the 
Democratic  Rei'Uhlic  in  the  United  States 

I  have  previously  remarked  that  the  manners  of  the  people 
may  he  considered  as  one  of  the  general  causes  to  which  the 
'  maintenance  of  a  democratic  repuhlic  in  the  United  States  is 
attrihutable.  I  here  used  the  word  manners  with  the  meaning 
which  the  ancients  attached  to  the  word  mores,  for  I  ai)ply  it  not 
only  to  manners  in  their  proper  sense  of  what  constitutes  the 
character  of  social  intercourse,  but  I  extend  it  to  the  various 
notions  and  opinions  current  among  men,  and  to  the  mass  of 
those  ideas  which  constitute  their  character  of  mind.  I  com- 
prise, therefore,  under  this  term  the  whole  moral  and  intellect- 
ual condition  of  a  people.  My  intention  is  not  to  draw  a 
picture  of  American  manners,  but  simply  to  point  out  suclr 
features  of  them  as  are  favorable  to  the  maintenance  of  political 
institutions. 


Religion  Considered  as  a  Political  Institution,  Which 
Powerfully  Contributes  to  the  Maintenance  of  the 
Democratic  Republic  Amongst  the  Americans 

North  America  peopled  by  men  who  professed  a  democratic  and  re- 
publican Christianity — Arrival  of  the  Catholics — For  what  reason 
the  Catholics  form  the  most  democratic  and  the  most  republican 
class  at  the  present  time. 

Every  religion  is  to  be  found  in  juxtaposition  to  a  political 
opinion  which  is  connected  with  it  by  affinity.  If  the  human 
mind  be  left  to  follow  its  own  bent,  it  will  regulate  the  teinporal 
and  spiritual  institutions  of  society  upon  one  uniform  principle ; 
and  man  will  endeavor,  if  I  may  use  the  expression,  to  harmon- 
ize the  state  in  which  he  lives  upon  earth  with  the  state  which  he 
believes  to  await  him  in  heaven.  The  greatest  part  of  British 
America  was  peopled  by  men  who,  after  having  shaken  of?  the 
authority  of  the  Pope,  acknowledged  no  other  religious  su- 
premacy ;  they  brought  with  them  into  the  New  World  a  form 


•.'.    i 


DEMOCRArv  IN  AMERICA 


30s 


of  Christianity  which  I  cannot  better  clcscribc  than  by  styhnpf 
it  a  democratic  and  republican  rehjjion.  This  sect  contributed 
powerfully  to  the  establishment  of  a  democracy  and  d  republic, 
and  from  the  earliest  settlement  of  the  emigrants  politics  and 
rclijjion  contracted  an  alliance  which  has  never  been  dissolved. 

About  fifty  years  ago  Ireland  began  to  pour  a  Catholic  popu- 
lation into  the  United  States  ;  on  the  other  hand,  the  Catholics 
of  America  made  proselytes,  and  at  the  present  moment  more 
than  a  million  of  Christians  professing  the  truths  of  the  Church 
of  Rome  arc  to  be  met  with  in  the  Union.*/  The  Catholics  are 
faithful  to  the  observances  of  their  religion  ;  they  are  fervent  and 
zealous  in  the  support  and  belief  of  their  doctrines.  Neverthe- 
less they  constitute  the  most  republican  and  the  most  demo- 
cratic class  of  citizens  which  exists  in  the  United  States ;  and 
although  this  fact  may  surprise  the  observer  at  first,  the  causes 
by  which  it  is  occasioned  may  easily  be  discovered  upon  reflec- 
tion. 

I  think  that  the  Catholic  religion  has  erroneously  been  looked 
upon  as  the  natural  enemy  of  democracy.  Amongst  the  vari- 
ous sects  of  Christians,  Catholicism  seems  to  me,  on  the 
contrary,  to  be  one  of  those  which  are  most  favorable  to  the 
equality  of  conditions.  In  the  Catholic  Church,  the  religious 
community  is  composed  of  only  two  elements,  the  priest  and 
the  people.  The  priest  alone  rises  above  the  rank  of  his  flock, 
and  all  below  him  are  equal. 

On  doctrinal  points  the  Catholic  faith  places  all  human  ca- 
pacities upon  the  same  level ;  it  subjects  the  wise  and  ignorant, 
the  man  of  genius  and  the  vulgar  crowd,  to  the  details  of  the 
same  creed  ;  it  imposes  the  same  observances  upon  the  rich  and 
needy,  it  inflicts  the  same  austerities  upon  the  strong  and  the 
weak,  it  listens  to  no  compromise  with  mortal  man,  but,  re- 
ducing all  the  human  race  to  the  same  standard,  it  confounds 
all  the  distinctions  of  society  at  the  foot  of  the  same  altar,  even 
as  they  are  confounded  in  the  sight  of  God.  If  Catholicism 
predisposes  the  faithful  to  obedience,  it  certainly  does  not  pre- 
pare  them   for  inequality ;   but  the  contrary  may  be  said  of 


d  [It  is  difficult  to  ascertain  with  ac- 
curacy the  amount  of  the  Roman  Cath- 
olic population  of  the  United  States,  but 
in  1868  an  able  writer  in  the  "  Edin- 
burpth  Review  "  (vol.  cxxvii.  _  p.  521) 
affirmed  that  the  whole  Catholic  popu- 
lation of  the   United  States  was  then 

Vol.  I.— 20 


about  4,000,000,  divided  into  43  dioceses, 
with  3,795  churches,  under  the  care  01 
45.  bishops  and  2,317  clercymen.  Ttut 
this  rapid  increase  is  mainly  supported 
by  immigration  from  the  Catholic  coun- 
tries of  Europe.] 


!      1'^ 


t 


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3o6 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


ii 


I       .  t 


tin  El  i  " 


Protestantism,  which  generally  tends  to  make  men  indepen- 
dent, more  tiian  to  render  tlicni  ecjual. 

Catholicism  is  like  an  absolute  monarchy ;  if  the  sovcreiRn 
be  removed,  all  the  other  classes  of  society  arc  more  equal  than 
they  are  in  republics.  It  has  not  unfrcquently  occurred  that  the 
Catholic  priest  has  left  the  service  of  the  altar  to  mix  with  the 
governing  powers  of  society,  and  to  take  his  place  amongst  the 
civil  gradations  of  men.  This  religious  influence  has  some- 
times been  used  to  secure  the  interests  of  that  political  state  of 
things  to  which  he  belonged.  At  other  times  Catholics  have 
taken  the  side  of  aristocracy  from  a  spirit  of  religion. 

But  no  sooner  is  the  priesthood  entirely  separated  from  the 
government,  as  is  the  case  in  the  United  States,  than  is  found 
that  no  class  of  men  are  more  naturally  disposed  than  the 
Catholics  to  transfuse  the  doctrine  of  the  equality  of  conditions 
into  the  political  world.  If,  then,  the  Catholic  citizens  of  the 
United  States  arc  not  forcibly  led  by  the  nature  of  their  tenets 
to  adopt  democratic  and  republican  principles,  at  least  they  are 
not  necessarily  opposed  to  them ;  and  their  social  position,  as 
well  as  their  limited  number,  obliges  them  to  adopt  these  opin- 
ions. Most  of  the  Catholics  are  poor,  and  they  have  no  chance 
of  taking  a  part  in  the  government  unless  it  be  open  to  all  the 
citizens.  They  constitute  a  minority,  and  all  rights  must  be  re- 
spected in  order  to  insure  to  them  the  free  exercise  of  their  own 
privileges.  These  two  causes  induce  them,  unconsciously,  to 
adopt  political  doctrines,  which  they  would  perhaps  support 
with  less  zeal  if  they  were  rich  and  preponderant. 

The  Catholic  clergy  of  the  United  States  has  never  attempted 
to  oppose  this  political  tendency,  but  it  seeks  rather  to  justify 
its  results.  The  priests  in  America  have  divided  the  intellect- 
ual world  into  two  parts :  in  the  one  they  place  the  doctrines  of 
revealed  religion,  which  command  their  assent ;  in  the  other 
they  leave  those  truths  which  they  believe  to  have  been  freely 
left  open  to  the  researches  of  political  inquiry.  Thus  the 
Catholics  of  the  United  States  are  at  the  same  time  the  most 
faithful  believers  and  the  most  zealous  citizens. 

It  may  be  asserted  that  in  the  United  States  no  religious  di-c- 
trine  displays  the  slightest  hostility  to  democratic  and  r^p  ubli- 
can  institutions.  The  clergy  of  all  the  different  sects  hold  the 
same  language,  their  opinions  are  consonant  to  the  laws,  and 
the  human  intellect  flows  onwards  in  one  sole  current. 


t 


'  1 


,  I' 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


307 


I  happened  to  be  staying  in  one  of  the  larjjcst  towns  in  the 
Union,  when  I  was  invited  to  attend  a  public  meeting  whicli 
had  been  called  for  the  purpose  of  assisting  the  Poles,  and  of 
sending  theiu  supplies  of  artns  and  money.  I  found  two  or 
three  thousand  persons  collected  in  a  vast  hall  which  had  been 
prepared  to  receive  them.  In  a  short  time  a  priest  in  his  ec- 
clesiastical robes  advanced  to  the  front  of  the  hustings:  the 
spectators  rose,  and  stood  uncovered,  whilst  he  spoke  in  the 
following  terms : — 

"  Almighty  God !  the  God  of  Armies !  Thou  who  didst 
strengthen  the  hearts  and  guide  the  arms  of  our  fathers  when 
they  were  fighting  for  the  sacred  rights  of  national  indepen- 
dence ;  Thou  who  didst  make  them  triumph  over  a  hateful  op- 
piession,  and  hast  granted  to  our  people  the  benefits  of  liberty 
ard  peace;  Turn,  O  Lord,  a  favorable  eye  upon  the  other 
hemisphere ;  pitifully  look  down  upon  that  heroic  nation  which 
is  even  now  struggling  as  we  did  in  the  former  time,  and  for 
the  same  riHits  which  wc  defended  with  our  blood.  Thou,  who 
didt  creat;  Man  in  the  likeness  of  the  same  image,  let  not 
tyir  ;  y  mar  Thy  work,  and  establish  inequality  upon  the  earth. 
A 'mighty  God!  do  Thou  watch  over  the  destiny  of  the  Poles, 
and  render  <em  worthy  to  be  free.  May  Thy  wisdom  direct 
their  councils,  and  may  Thy  strength  sustain  their  arms !  Shed 
forth  Thy  terror  ov<  r  'heir  enemies,  scatter  the  powers  which 
take  counsel  against  Jicm;  and  vouchsafe  that  the  injustice 
which  the  world  has  witnessed  for  fifty  years,  be  not  consum- 
mated in  our  time.  O  Lord,  who  boldest  alike  the  hearts  of 
nations  and  of  men  in  Thy  powerful  hand ;  raise  up  allies  to  the 
sacred  cause  of  right ;  arouse  the  French  nation  from  the 
apathy  in  which  its  rulers  retain  it,  that  it  go  forth  again  to  fight 
for  the  liberties  of  the  world. 

"  Lord,  turn  not  Thou  Thy  face  from  us,  and  grant  that  we 
may  always  be  the  most  religious  as  well  as  the  freest  people 
of  the  earth.  Almighty  God,  hear  our  supplications  this  day. 
Save  the  Poles,  we  beseech  Thee,  in  the  name  of  Thy  well-be- 
loved Son,  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  who  died  upon  the  cros^  for 
the  salvation  of  men.    Amen." 

The  whole  meeting  responded  "  Amen !"  with  devotion. 


II 


I ,' 


1' 


'■''1  I 


S !. 


i 


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J'  i 


I  ii 


rrrii 


I  \ !'' 


■I    :!'l 


308 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


Indirect  Influence  of  Religious  Opinions  Upon  Politi- 
cal Society  in  the  United  States 

Christian  morality  common  to  all  sects — Influence  of  religion  upon  the 
manners  of  the  Americans — Respect  for  the  marriage  tie — In  what 
manner  religion  confines  the  imagination  of  the  Americans  within 
certain  limits,  and  checks  the  passion  of  innovation — Opinion  of 
the  Americans  on  the  political  utility  of  religion — Their  exertions 
to  extend  and  secure  its  predominance. 

I  have  just  shown  what  the  direct  influence  of  religion  upon 
politics  is  in  the  United  States,  but  its  indirect  influence  appears 
to  me  to  be  still  more  considerable,  and  it  never  instructs  the 
Americans  more  fully  in  the  art  of  being  free  than  when  it  says 
nothing  of  freedom. 

The  sects  which  exist  in  the  United  States  are  innumerable. 
They  all  differ  in  respect  to  the  worship  which  is  due  from  man 
to  his  Creator,  but  they  all  agree  in  respect  to  the  duties  which 
are  due  from  man  to  man.  Each  sect  adores  the  Deity  in  its 
own  peculiar  manner,  but  all  the  sects  preach  the  same  moral 
law  in  the  name  of  God.  If  it  be  of  the  highest  importance  to 
man,  as  an  individual,  that  his  religion  should  be  true,  the  case 
of  society  is  not  the  same.  Society  has  no  future  life  to  hope 
for  or  to  fear ;  and  provided  the  citizens  profess  a  religion,  the 
peculiar  tenets  of  that  religion  are  of  very  little  importance  to 
its  interests.  Moreover,  almost  all  the  sects  of  the  United 
States  are  comprised  within  the  great  unity  of  Christianity,  and 
Christian  morality  is  everywhere  the  same. 

It  may  be  believed  without  unfairness  that  a  certain  number 
of  Americans  pursue  a  peculiar  form  of  worship,  from  habit 
more  than  from  conviction.  In  the  United  States  the  sovereign 
authority  is  religious,  and  consequently  hypocrisy  must  be  com- 
mon ;  but  there  is  no  country  in  the  whole  world  in  which  the 
Christian  religion  retains  a  greater  influence  over  the  souls  of 
men  than  in  America ;  and  there  can  be  no  greater  proof  of  its 
utility,  and  of  its  conformity  to  human  nature,  than  that  its  in- 
fluence is  most  powerfully  felt  over  the  most  enlightened  and 
free  nation  of  the  earth. 

I  have  remarked  that  the  members  of  the  American  clergy 
in  general,  without  even  excepting  those  who  do  not  admit  re- 
ligious liberty,  are  all  in  favor  of  civil  freedom  ;  but  they  do  not 
support  any  particular  political  system.    They  keep  aloof  from 


L/lr 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


309 


parties  and  from  public  affairs.  In  the  United  States  religion 
exercises  but  little  influence  upon  the  laws  and  upon  the  details 
of  public  opinion,  but  it  directs  the  manners  of  the  community, 
and  by  regulating  domestic  life  it  regulates  the  State. 

I  do  not  question  that  the  great  austerity  of  manners  which 
is  observable  in  the  United  States,  arises,  in  the  first  instance, 
from  religious  faith.  Religion  is  often  unable  to  restrain  man 
from  the  numberless  temptations  of  fortune ;  nor  can  it  check 
that  passion  for  gain  which  every  incident  of  his  life  contributes 
to  arouse,  but  its  influence  over  the  mind  of  woman  is  supreme, 
and  women  are  the  protectors  of  morals.  There  is  certainly  no 
country  in  the  world  where  the  tie  of  marriage  is  so  much  re- 
spected as  in  America,  or  where  conjugal  happiness  is  more 
highly  or  worthily  appreciated.  In  Europe  almost  all  the  dis- 
turbances of  society  arise  from  the  irregularities  of  domestic 
life.  To  despise  the  natural  bonds  and  legitimate  pleasures  of 
home,  is  to  contract  a  taste  for  excesses,  a  restlessness  of  heart, 
and  the  evil  of  fluctuating  desires.  Agitated  by  the  tumultuous 
passions  which  frequently  disturb  his  dwelling,  the  European 
is  galled  by  the  obedience  which  the  legislative  powers  of  the 
State  exact.  But  when  the  American  retires  from  the  turmoil 
of  public  life  to  the  bosom  of  his  family,  he  finds  in  it  the  image 
of  order  and  of  peace.  There  his  pleasures  are  simple  and  nat- 
ural, his  joys  are  innocent  and  calm ;  and  as  he  finds  that  an 
orderly  life  is  the  surest  path  to  happiness,  he  accustoms  him- 
self without  difficulty  to  moderate  his  opinions  as  well  as  his 
tastes.  Whilst  the  European  endeavors  to  forget  his  domestic 
troubles  by  agitating  society,  the  American  derives  from  his 
own  home  that  love  of  order  which  he  afterwards  carries  with 
him  into  public  aflfairs. 

In  the  United  States  the  influence  of  religion  is  not  confined 
to  the  manners,  but  it  extends  to  the  intelligence  of  the  people. 
Amongst  the  Anglo-Americans,  there  are  some  who  profess 
the  doctrines  of  Christianity  from  a  sincere  belief  in  them,  and 
others  who  do  the  same  because  they  are  afraid  to  be  suspected 
of  unbelief.  Christianity,  therefore,  reigns  without  any  ob- 
stacle, by  universal  consent ;  the  consequence  is.  as  I  have  be- 
fore observed,  that  every  principle  of  the  moral  world  is  fixed 
and  determinate,  although  the  political  world  is  abandoned  to 
the  debates  and  the  experiments  of  men.  Thus  the  human 
mind  is  never  left  to  wander  across  a  boundless  field;   and. 


3IO 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


. 


^llu\ 


I.I 


1: 


■  ( 


\\ 


whatever  may  be  its  pretensions,  it  is  checked  from  time  to 
time  by  barriers  which  it  cannot  surmount.  Before  it  can  per- 
petrate innovation,  certain  primal  snd  immutable  principles 
are  laid  down,  and  the  boldest  concoptu  ns  of  human  device  are 
subjected  to  certain  forms  which  retard  and  stop  their  com- 
pletion. 

The  imagination  of  the  Americans,  even  in  its  greatest  flights, 
is  circumspect  and  undecided ;  its  impulses  are  checked,  and  its 
works  unfinished.  These  habits  of  restraint  recur  in  political 
society,  and  are  singularly  favorable  both  to  the  tranquillity 
of  the  people  and  to  the  durability  of  the  institutions  it  has 
established.  Nature  and  circumstances  concurred  to  make  the 
inhabitants  of  the  United  States  bold  men,  as  is  sufficiently 
attested  by  the  enterprising  spirit  with  which  they  seek  for 
fortune.  If  the  mind  of  the  Americans  were  free  from  all  tram- 
mels, they  would  very  shortly  become  the  most  daring  innova- 
tors and  the  most  implacable  disputants  in  the  world.  But  the 
revolutionists  of  America  are  obliged  to  profess  an  ostensible 
respect  for  Christian  morality  and  equity,  which  does  not  easily 
permit  them  to  violate  the  laws  that  oppose  their  designs ;  nor 
would  they  find  it  easy  to  surmount  the  scruples  of  their  parti- 
sans, even  if  they  were  able  to  get  over  their  own.  Hitherto 
no  one  in  the  United  States  has  dared  to  advance  the  maxim, 
that  everything  is  permissible  with  a  view  to  the  interests  of  so- 
ciety; an  impious  adage  which  seems  to  have  been  invented 
in  an  age  of  freedom  to  shelter  all  the  tyrants  of  future  ages. 
Thus  whilst  the  law  permits  the  Americans  to  do  what  they 
please,  religion  prevents  them  from  conceiving,  and  forbids 
them  to  commit,  what  is  rash  or  unjust. 

Religion  in  America  takes  no  direct  part  in  the  government 
of  society,  but  it  must  nevertheless  be  regarded  as  the  foremost 
of  the  political  institutions  of  that  country ;  for  if  it  does  not 
impart  a  taste  for  freedom,  it  facilitates  the  use  of  free  institu- 
tions. Indeed,  it  is  in  this  same  point  of  view  that  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  United  States  themselves  look  upon  religious  be- 
lief. I  do  not  know  whether  all  the  Americans  have  a  sincere 
faith  in  their  religion,  for  who  can  search  the  human  heart?  but 
I  am  certain  that  they  hold  it  to  be  indispensable  to  the  main- 
tenance of  republican  institutions.  This  opinion  is  not  peculiar 
to  a  class  of  citizens  or  to  a  party,  but  it  belongs  to  the  whole 
nation,  and  to  every  rank  of  society. 


■:^     •  1.  ■ 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


3»i 


In  the  United  States,  if  a  political  character  attacks  a  sect, 
this  may  not  prevent  even  the  partisans  of  that  very  sect  from 
supporting  him ;  but  if  he  attacks  all  the  sects  together,  every- 
one abandons  him,  and  he  remains  alone. 

Whilst  I  was  in  America,  a  witness,  who  happened  to  be 
called  at  the  assizes  of  the  county  of  Chester  (State  of  New 
York),  declared  that  he  did  not  believe  in  the  existence  of  God, 
or  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  The  judge  refused  to  admit 
his  evidence,  on  the  ground  that  the  witness  had  destroyed  be- 
forehand al!  the  confidence  of  the  Court  in  what  he  was  about 
to  say.^  The  newspapers  related  the  fact  without  any  further 
comment. 

The  Americans  combine  the  notions  of  Christianity  and  of 
liberty  so  intimately  in  their  minds,  that  it  is  impossible  to  make 
them  conceive  the  one  without  the  other ;  and  with  them  this 
conviction  does  not  spring  from  that  barren  traditionary  faith 
which  seems  to  vegetate  in  the  soul  rather  than  to  live. 

I  have  known  of  societies  formed  by  the  Americans  to  send 
out  ministers  of  the  Gospel  into  the  new  Western  States  to 
found  schools  and  churches  there,  lest  religion  should  be  suf- 
fered to  die  away  in  those  remote  settlements,  and  the  rising 
States  be  less  fitted  to  enjoy  free  institutions  than  the  people 
from  which  they  emanated.  I  met  with  wealthy  New  Eng- 
landers  who  abandoned  the  country  in  which  they  were  born  in 
order  to  lay  the  foundations  of  Christianity  and  of  freedom  on 
the  banks  of  the  Missouri,  or  in  the  prairies  of  Illinois.  Thus 
religious  zeal  is  perpetually  stimulated  in  the  United  States  by 
the  duties  of  patriotism.  These  men  do  not  act  from  an  ex- 
clusive consideration  of  the  promises  of  a  future  life ;  eternity 
is  only  one  motive  of  their  devotion  to  the  cause ;  and  if  you 
converse  with  these  missionaries  of  Christian  civilization,  you 
will  be  surprised  to  find  how  much  value  they  set  upon  the 
goods  of  this  world,  and  that  you  meet  with  a  politician  where 
you  expected  to  find  a  priest.  They  will  tell  you  that  "  all  the 
American  republics  are  collectively  involved  with  each  other ; 
if  the  republics  of  the  West  were  to  fall  into  anarchy,  or  to 


eThe  New  York  "Spectator"  of 
August  :3.  1831,  relates  the  fact  in  the 
following  terms:— "The  Court  of  Com- 
mon Pleas  of  Chester  county  (New 
York)  a  few  days  since  rejected  a  wit- 
ness who  declared  his  disbelief  in  the 
existence  of  God.  The  presiding  judge 
remarked  that  he  had  not  before  been 


aware  that  there  was  a  man  living  who 
did  not  believe  in  the  existence  of  God; 
that  this  belief  constituted  the  sanction 
of  all  testimony  in  a  court  of  justice, 
and  that  he  knew  of  no  cause  in  a 
Christian  country  where  a  witness  had 
been  permitted  to  testify  without  such 
belief.*' 


fj 


"I 


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312 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


'1^ 


W 


be  mastered  by  a  despot,  the  republican  institutions  which  now 
flourish  upon  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  would  be  in 
great  peril.  It  is,  therefore,  our  interest  that  the  new  States 
should  be  religious,  in  order  to  maintain  our  liberties." 

Such  are  the  opinions  of  the  Americans,  and  if  any  hold 
that  the  religious  spirit  which  I  admire  is  the  very  thing  most 
amiss  in  America,  and  that  the  only  element  wanting  to  the 
freedom  and  happiness  of  the  human  race  is  to  believe  in  some 
blind  cosmogony,  or  to  assert  with  Cabanis  the  secretion  of 
thought  by  the  brain,  I  can  only  reply  that  those  who  hold 
this  language  have  never  been  in  America,  and  that  they  have 
never  seen  a  religious  or  a  free  nation.  When  they  return  from 
their  expedition,  we  shall  hear  what  they  have  to  say. 

There  are  persons  in  France  who  look  upon  republican  in- 
stitutions as  a  temporary  means  of  power,  of  wealth,  and  dis- 
tinction ;  men  who  are  the  condottieri  of  liberty,  and  who  fight 
for  their  own  advantage,  whatever  be  the  colors  they  wear: 
it  is  not  to  these  that  I  address  myself.  But  there  are  others 
who  look  forward  to  the  republican  form  of  government  as  a 
tranquil  and  lasting  state,  towards  which  modern  society  is 
daily  impelled  by  the  ideas  and  manners  of  the  time,  and  who 
sincerely  desire  to  prepare  men  to  be  free.  When  these  men 
attack  religious  opinions,  they  obey  the  dictates  of  their  pas- 
sions to  the  prejudice  of  their  interests.  Despotism  may  govern 
without  faith,  but  liberty  cannot.  Religion  is  much  more  nec- 
essary in  the  republic  which  they  set  forth  in  glowing  colors 
than  in  the  monarchy  which  they  attack ;  and  it  is  more  needed 
in  democratic  republics  than  in  any  others.  How  is  it  possible 
that  society  should  escape  destruction  if  the  moral  tie  be  not 
strengthened  in  proportion  as  the  political  tie  is  relaxed  ?  and 
what  can  be  done  with  a  people  which  is  its  own  master,  if  it  be 
not  submissive  to  the  Divinity? 


.  ^<M«.^-^  J-- 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


313 


Principal  Causes  Which  Render  Religion  Powerful  in 

America 

Care  taken  by  the  Americans  to  separate  the  Church  from  the  State 
— The  laws,  public  opinion,  and  even  the  exertions  of  the  clergy 
concur  to  promote  this  end — Influence  of  religion  upon  the  mind 
in  the  United  States  attributable  to  this  cause — Reason  of  this — 
What  is  the  natural  state  of  men  with  regard  to  religion  at  the 
present  time — What  are  the  peculiar  and  incidental  causes  which 
prevent  men,  in  certain  countries,  from  arriving  at  this  state. 

The  philosophers  of  the  eighteenth  century  explained  the 
gradual  decay  of  religious  faith  in  a  very  simple  manner.  Re- 
ligious zeal,  said  they,  must  necessarily  fail,  the  more  generally 
liberty  is  established  and  knowledge  diffused.  Unfortunately, 
facts  are  by  no  means  in  accordance  with  their  theory.  There 
are  certain  populations  in  Europe  whose  unbelief  is  only 
equalled  by  their  ignorance  and  their  debasement,  whilst  in 
America  one  of  the  freest  and  most  enlightened  nations  in  the 
world  fulfils  all  the  outward  duties  of  religious  fervor. 

Upon  my  arrival  in  the  United  States,  the  religious  aspect 
of  the  country  was  the  first  thing  that  struck  my  attention; 
and  the  longer  I  stayed  there  the  more  did  I  perceive  the  great 
political  consequences  resulting  from  this  state  of  things,  to 
which  I  was  unaccustomed.  In  France  I  had  almost  always 
seen  the  spirit  of  religion  and  the  spirit  of  freedom  pursuing 
courses  diametrically  opposed  to  each  other ;  but  in  America 
I  found  that  they  were  intimately  united,  and  that  they  reigned 
in  common  over  the  same  country.  My  desire  to  discover  the 
causes  of  this  phenomenon  increased  from  day  to  day.  In 
order  to  satisfy  it  I  questioned  the  members  of  all  the  different 
sects ;  and  I  more  especially  sought  the  society  of  the  clergy, 
who  are  the  depositaries  of  the  different  persuasions,  and  who 
are  more  especially  interested  in  their  duration.  As  a  member 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  I  was  more  particularly  brought 
into  contact  with  several  of  its  priests,  with  whom  I  became 
intimately  acquainted.  To  each  of  these  men  I  expressed  my 
astonishment  and  I  explained  my  doubts;  I  found  that  they 
differed  upon  matters  of  detail  alone;  and  that  they  mainly 
attributed  the  peaceful  <  miinion  of  religion  in  their  country 
to  the  separation  of  Church  and  State.  I  do  not  hesitate  to 
affirm  that  during  my  stay  in  America  I  did  not  meet  with  a 


^i» 


( i 


'1     i 


V    ,1 


H- ,. 


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I't  1 


3<4 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


single  individual,  of  the  clergy  or  of  the  laity,  who  was  not  of 
the  same  opinion  upon  this  point. 

This  led  me  to  examine  more  attentively  than  I-had  hitherto 
done,  the  station  which  the  American  clergy  occupy  in  political 
society.  I  learned  with  surprise  that  they  filled  no  public  ap- 
pointments ;  f  not  one  of  them  is  to  be  met  with  in  the  adminis- 
tration, and  they  are  not  even  represented  in  the  legislative 
assemblies.  In  several  States  g  the  law  excludes  them  from  po- 
litical life,  public  opinion  in  all.  And  when  I  came  to  inquire 
into  th''  prevailing  spirit  of  the  clergy  I  found  that  most  of  its 
members  seemed  to  retire  of  their  own  accord  from  the  exercise 
of  power,  and  that  they  made  it  the  pride  of  their  profession  to 
abstain  from  politics. 

I  heard  them  inveigh  against  ambition  and  deceit,  under 
whatever  political  opinions  these  vices  might  chance  to  lurk ; 
but  I  learned  from  their  discourses  that  men  are  not  guilty  in 
the  eye  of  God  for  any  opinions  concerning  political  govern- 
ment which  they  may  profess  with  sincerity,  any  more  than 
they  are  for  their  mistakes  in  building  a  house  or  in  driving  a 
furrow.  I  perceived  that  these  ministers  of  the  gospel 
eschewed  all  parties  with  the  anxiety  attendant  upon  personal 
interest.  These  facts  convinced  me  that  what  I  had  been  told 
was  true;  and  it  then  became  my  object  to  investigate  their 
causes,  and  to  inquire  how  it  happened  that  the  real  authority 
of  religion  was  increased  by  a  state  of  things  which  diminished 
its  apparent  force:  these  causes  did  not  long  escape  my  re- 
searches. 

The  short  space  of  threescore  years  can  never  content  the 
imagination  of  man ;  nor  can  the  imperfect  joys  of  this  world 
satisfy  his  heart.  Man  alone,  of  all  created  beings,  displays  a 
natural  contempt  of  existence,  and  yet  a  boundless  desire  to 
exist;  he  scorns  life,  but  he  dreads  annihilation.  These  dif- 
ferent feelings  incessantly  urge  his  soul  to  the  contemplation 
of  a  future  state,  and  religion  directs  his  musings  thither.    Re- 


/  Unless  this  term  be  applied  to  the 
functions  which  many  of  them  fill  in  the 
schools.  Almost  all  education  is  en- 
trusted  to   the   clergy. 

g  See  the  Constitution  of  New  York, 
art.  7.  5  4:— 

"  And  whereas  the  mmisters  of  the 
gospel  are,  by  their  profession,  dedicated 
to  the  service  of  God  and  the  care  of 
souls,  and  ought  not  to  be  diverted  from 
the  great  duties  of  their  functions: 
therefore  no  minirier  of  the  gospel,  or 


priest  of  any  denomination  whatsoever, 
shall  at  any  time  hereafter,  under  any 
pretence  or  description  whatever,  be 
eligible  to,  or  capable  of  holding,  .iny 
civil  or  military  office  or  place  within 
this  State." 

See  also  the  constitutions  of  North 
Tarolina,  art.  31;  Virg-'nia;  South  Caro- 
lina, art.  I,  §  23;  Kentucky,  art.  2,  S  26; 
Tennessee,  art.  8,  §  i;  Louisiana,  art.  2, 

i    22. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


315 


ligion,  then,  is  simply  another  form  of  hope ;  and  it  is  no  less 
natural  to  the  human  heart  than  hope  itself.  Men  cannot 
abandon  their  religious  faith  without  a  kind  of  aberration  of 
intellect,  and  a  sort  of  violent  distortion  of  their  true  natures ; 
but  they  are  invincibly  brought  back  to  more  pious  sentiments ; 
for  unbelief  is  an  accident,  and  faith  is  the  only  permanent  state 
of  mankind.  If  we  only  consider  religious  institutions  in  a 
purely  human  point  of  view,  they  may  ue  said  to  derive  an 
inexhaustible  element  of  strength  from  man  himself,  since  they 
belong  to  one  of  the  constituent  principles  of  human  nature, 

I  am  aware  that  at  certain  times  religion  may  strengthen 
this  influence,  which  originates  in  itself,  by  the  artificial  power 
of  the  laws,  and  by  the  support  of  those  temporal  institutions 
which  direct  society.  Religions,  intimately  united  to  the  gov- 
ernments of  the  earth,  have  been  known  to  exercise  a  sovereign 
authority  derived  from  the  twofold  source  of  terror  and  of 
faith ;  but  when  a  religion  contracts  an  alliance  of  this  nature, 
I  do  not  hesitate  to  affirm  that  it  commits  the  same  error  as  a 
man  who  should  sacrifice  his  future  to  his  present  welfare ;  and 
in  obtaining  a  power  to  which  it  has  no  claim,  it  risks  that 
authority  which  is  rightfully  its  own.  When  a  religion  founds 
its  empire  upon  the  desire  of  immortality  which  lives  in  every 
human  heart,  it  may  aspire  to  universal  dominion ;  but  when  it 
connects  itself  with  a  government,  it  must  necessarily  adopt 
maxims  which  are  only  applicable  to  certain  nations.  Thus, 
in  forming  an  alliance  with  a  political  power,  religion  augments 
its  authority  over  a  few,  and  forfeits  the  hope  of  reigning  over 
all. 

As  long  as  a  religion  rests  upon  those  sentiments  which 
are  the  consolation  of  all  afifliction,  it  may  attract  the  affections 
of  mankind.  But  if  it  be  mixed  up  with  the  bitter  passions  of 
the  world,  it  may  be  constrained  to  defend  allies  whom  its  in- 
terests, and  not  the  principle  of  love,  have  given  to  it ;  or  to 
repel  as  antagonists  men  who  are  still  attached  to  its  own 
spirit,  however  opposed  they  may  be  to  the  powers  to  which  it 
is  allied.  The  Church  cannot  share  the  temporal  power  of  the 
State  without  being  the  object  of  a  portion  of  that  animosity 
which  the  latter  excites. 

The  political  powers  which  seem  to  be  most  firmly  estab- 
lished have  frequently  no  better  guarantee  for  their  duration 
than  the  opinions  of  a  generation,  the  interests  of  the  time, 


f?     tl 


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II  i   « 


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u 


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DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


•  ii 


I 


IVJ 


or  the  life  of  an  individual.  A  law  may  modify  the  social 
condition  which  seems  to  be  most  fixed  and  determinate ;  and 
with  the  social  condition  everything  else  must  change.  The 
powers  of  society  arc  more  or  less  fugitive,  like  the  years 
which  we  spend  upon  the  earth ;  they  succeed  each  other  with 
rapidity,  like  the  fleeting  cares  of  life ;  and  no  government  has 
ever  yet  been  founded  upon  an  invariable  disposition  of  the 
human  heart,  or  upon  an  imperishable  interest. 

As  long  as  a  religion  is  sustained  by  those  feelings,  pro- 
pensities, and  passions  which  are  found  to  occur  under  the 
same  forms,  at  all  the  different  periods  of  history,  it  may  defy 
the  efforts  of  time;  or  at  least  it  can  only  be  destroyed  by 
another  religion.  But  when  religion  clings  to  the  interests  of 
the  world,  it  becomes  almost  as  fragile  a  thing  as  the  powers 
of  earth.  It  is  the  only  one  of  them  all  which  can  hope  for 
immortality ;  but  if  it  be  connected  with  their  ephemeral  au- 
thority, it  shares  their  fortunes,  and  may  fall  with  those  tran- 
sient passions  which  supported  them  for  a  day.  The  alliance 
which  religion  contracts  with  political  powers  must  needs  be 
onerous  to  itself;  since  it  does  not  require  their  assistance  to 
live,  and  by  giving  them  its  assistance  it  may  be  exposed  to 
decay. 

The  danger  which  I  have  just  pointed  out  always  exists, 
but  it  is  not  always  equally  visible.  In  some  ages  governments 
seem  to  be  imperishable ;  in  others,  the  existence  of  society  ap- 
pears to  be  more  precarious  than  the  life  of  man.  Some  constitu- 
tions plunge  the  citizens  into  a  lethargic  somnolence,  and  others 
rouse  them  to  feverish  excitement.  When  governments  appear 
to  be  so  strc  .  and  laws  so  stable,  men  do  not  perceive  the 
dangers  which  may  accrue  from  a  union  of  Church  and  State. 
When  governments  display  so  much  weakness,  and  laws  so 
much  inconstancy,  the  danger  is  self-evident,  but  it  is  no 
longer  possible  to  ?  roid  it ;  to  be  effectual,  measures  must  be 
taken  to  discover  its  approach. 

In  proportion  as  a  nation  assumes  a  democratic  condition 
of  society,  and  as  communities  display  democratic  propensi- 
ties, it  becomes  more  and  more  dangerous  to  connect  religion 
with  political  institutions;  for  the  time  is  coming  when  au- 
thority will  be  bandied  from  hand  to  hand,  when  political 
theories  will  succeed  each  other,  and  when  men,  laws,  and 
constitutions  will  disappear,  or  be  modified  from  day  to  day, 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


317 


and  this,  not  for  a  season  only,  but  unceasingly.  Agitation 
and  mutability  are  inherent  in  the  nature  of  democratic  re- 
publics, just  as  stagnation  and  inertness  are  the  law  of  absolute 
monar  liies. 

If  the  Americans,  who  change  the  head  of  the  Government 
once  in  four  years,  who  elect  new  legislators  every  two  years, 
and  renew  the  provincial  officers  every  twelvemonth ;  if  the 
Americans,  who  have  abandoned  the  political  world  to  the 
attempts  of  innovators,  had  not  placed  religion  beyond  their 
rep.ch,  where  could  it  abide  in  the  ebb  and  flow  of  human 
opinions  ?  where  would  that  respect  which  belongs  to  it  be  paid, 
amidst  the  struggles  of  faction  ?  and  what  would  become  of  its 
immortality,  in  the  midst  of  perpetual  decay  ?  The  American 
clergy  were  the  first  to  perceive  this  truth,  and  to  act  in  con- 
formity with  it.  They  saw  that  they  must  renounce  their  re- 
ligious influence,  if  they  were  to  strive  for  political  power ;  and 
they  chose  to  give  up  the  support  of  the  State,  rather  than  to 
share  its  vicissitudes. 

In  America,  religion  is  perhaps  less  powerful  than  it  has 
been  at  certain  periods  in  the  history  of  certain  peoples ;  but 
its  influence  is  more  lasting.  It  restricts  itself  to  its  own  re- 
sources, but  of  those  none  can  deprive  it :  its  circle  is  limited 
to  certain  principles,  but  those  principles  are  entirely  its  own, 
and  under  its  undisputed  control. 

On  every  side  in  Europe  we  hear  voices  complaining  of 
the  absence  of  religious  faith,  and  inquiring  the  means  of  re- 
storing to  religion  some  remnant  of  its  pristine  authority.  It 
seems  to  me  that  we  must  first  attentively  consider  what  ought 
to  be  the  natural  state  of  men  with  regard  to  religion  at  the 
present  time ;  and  when  we  know  what  we  have  to  hope  and 
to  fear,  we  may  discern  the  end  to  which  our  efforts  ought  to 
be  directed. 

The  two  great  dangers  which  threaten  the  existence  of  re- 
ligions are  schism  and  indifference.  In  ages  of  fervent  devo- 
tion, men  sometimes  abandon  their  religion,  but  they  only 
shake  it  off  in  order  to  adopt  another.  Their  faith  changes 
the  objects  to  which  it  is  directed,  but  it  suffers  no  decline.  The 
old  religion  then  excites  enthusiastic  attachment  or  bitter 
enmity  in  either  party ;  some  leave  it  with  anger,  others  cling 
to  it  with  increased  devotedness,  and  although  persuasions  dif- 
fer, irreligion  is  unknown.    Such,  however,  is  not  the  case 


1  1 


1i 


'  I 


3«8 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


I    i 


when  a  religious  belief  is  secretly  undermined  by  doctrines 
which  may  be  termed  negative,  since  they  deny  the  truth  of 
one  religion  without  affinuing  that  of  any  other.  Progidious 
revolutions  then  take  place  in  the  human  mind,  without  the 
apparent  co-operation  of  the  passions  of  man,  and  almost  with- 
out his  knowledge.  Men  lose  the  objects  of  their  fondest  hopes, 
as  if  through  forgetfulness.  They  are  carried  away  by  an  im- 
perceptible current  which  they  have  not  the  courage  to  stem, 
but  which  they  follow  with  regret,  since  it  bears  them  from  a 
faith  they  love,  to  a  scepticism  that  plunges  them  into  despair. 

In  ages  which  answer  to  this  description,  men  desert  their 
religious  opinions  from  lukewarmness  rather  than  from  dis- 
like; they  do  not  reject  them,  but  the  sentiments  by  which 
they  were  once  fostered  disappear.  But  if  the  unbeliever  does 
not  admit  religion  to  be  true,  he  still  considers  it  useful.  Re- 
garding religious  institutions  in  a  human  point  of  view,  he 
acknowledges  their  intluence  upon  manners  and  legislation. 
He  admits  that  they  may  serve  to  make  men  live  in  peace  with 
one  another,  and  to  prepare  them  gently  for  the  hour  of  death. 
He  regrets  the  faith  which  he  has  lost ;  and  as  he  is  deprived  of 
a  treasure  which  he  has  learned  to  estimate  at  its  full  value, 
he  scruples  to  take  it  from  those  who  still  possess  it. 

On  the  other  hand,  those  who  continue  to  believe  are  not 
afraid  openly  to  avow  their  faith.  They  look  upon  those  who 
do  not  share  their  persuasion  as  more  worthy  of  pity  than  of 
opposition ;  and  they  are  aware  that  to  acquire  the  esteem  of 
the  unbelieving,  they  are  not  obliged  to  follow  their  example. 
They  are  hostile  to  no  one  in  the  world ;  and  as  they  do  not 
consider  the  society  in  which  they  live  as  an  arena  in  which 
religion  is  bound  to  face  its  thousand  deadly  foes,  they  love  their 
contemporaries,  whilst  they  condemn  their  weaknesses  and 
lament  their  errors. 

As  those  who  do  not  believe,  conceal  their  incredulity ;  and 
as  those  who  believe,  display  their  faith,  public  opinion  pro- 
nounces itself  in  favor  of  religion:  love,  support,  and  honor 
are  bestowed  upon  it,  and  it  is  only  1)y  searching  the  human 
soul  that  we  can  detect  the  wounds  which  it  has  received.  The 
mass  of  mankind,  who  are  never  without  the  feeling  of  religion, 
do  not  perceive  anything  at  variance  with  the  established  faith. 
The  instinctive  desire  of  a  future  life  brings  the  crowd  about 
the  altar,  and  opens  the  hearts  of  men  to  the  precepts  and  con- 
solations of  religion. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


319 


But  this  picture  is  not  applicable  to  us:  for  there  are  men 
amonRst  us  who  have  ceased  to  believe  in  Christianity,  without 
adopting  any  other  religion ;  others  who  are  in  the  perplexities 
of  doubt,  and  who  already  aifect  not  to  believe ;  and  others, 
again,  who  are  afraid  to  avow  that  Christian  faith  which  they 
still  cherish  in  secret. 

Amidst  these  lukewarm  partisans  and  ardent  antagonists  a 
small  number  of  believers  exist,  who  are  ready  to  brave  all 
obstacles  and  to  scorn  all  dangers  in  defence  of  their  faith. 
They  have  done  violence  to  human  weakness,  in  order  to  rise 
superior  to  pubHc  opinion.  Excited  by  the  effort  they  have 
made,  they  scarcely  knew  where  to  stop ;  and  as  they  know  that 
the  first  use  which  the  French  made  of  independence  was  to 
attack  religion,  they  look  upon  their  contemporaries  with 
dread,  and  they  recoil  in  alarm  from  the  liberty  which  their 
fellow-citizens  are  seeking  to  obtain.  As  unbelief  appears  to 
them  to  be  a  novelty,  they  comprise  all  that  is  new  in  one 
indiscriminate  animosity.  They  are  at  war  with  their  age  and 
country,  and  they  look  upon  every  opinion  which  is  put  forth 
there  as  the  necessary  enemy  of  the  faith. 

Such  is  not  the  natural  state  of  men  with  regard  to  religion 
at  the  present  day ;  and  some  extraordinary  or  incidental  cause 
must  be  at  work  in  France  to  prevent  the  human  mind  from 
following  its  original  propensities  and  to  drive  it  beyond  the 
limits  at  which  it  ought  naturally  to  stop.  I  am  intimately 
convinced  that  this  extraordinary  and  incidental  cause  is  the 
close  connection  of  politics  and  religion.  The  unbelievers  of 
Europe  attack  the  Christians  as  their  political  opponents,  rather 
than  as  their  religious  adversaries;  they  hate  the  Christian 
religion  as  the  opinion  of  a  party,  much  more  than  as  an  error 
of  beHef ;  and  they  reject  the  clergy  less  because  they  are  the 
representatives  of  the  Divinity  than  because  they  are  the 
allies  of  authority. 

In  Europe,  Christianity  has  been  intimately  united  to  the 
powers  of  the  earth.  Those  powers  are  now  in  decay,  and  it 
is,  as  it  were,  buried  under  their  ruins.  The  living  body  of 
religion  has  been  bound  down  to  the  dead  corpse  of  super- 
annuated polity :  cut  but  the  bonds  which  restrain  it,  and  that 
which  is  alive  will  rise  once  more.  I  know  not  what  could  re- 
store the  Christian  Church  of  Europe  to  the  energy  of  its 
earlier  days;   that  power  belongs  to  God  alone;   but  it  may 


I     § 


tt 


I    'll     !' 


i'fl 


i 


1. 


'I ;"; 


"■'"^.l 


ri^ 


3ao 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


be  the  effect  of  human  policy  to  leave  the  faith  in  the  full 
:x<'rci.sc  of  the  strength  which  it  still  retains. 

How  THE  Instruction,  the  Habits,  and  the  Practical 
Experience  of  the  Americans  Promote  the  Success 
OF  Their  Democratic  Institutions 

What  is  to  be  understood  by  the  instruction  of  the  American  people— 
The  human  mind  more  superficially  instructed  in  the  United  States 
than  in  Europe — No  one  completely  uninstructcd — Reason  of  this— 
Rapidity  with  which  opinions  are  diffused  even  in  the  uncultivatid 
States  of  the  West — Practical  experience  more  serviceable  to  the 
Americans  than  book-learning. 

I  have  but  little  to  add  to  what  I  have  already  said  con- 
cerning the  influence  which  the  instruction  and  the  habits  of  the 
Ame  'cans  exercise  upon  the  maintenance  of  their  political  in- 
stitutions. 

America  has  hitherto  produced  very  few  writers  of  distinc- 
tion ;  it  possesses  no  great  historians,  and  not  a  single  eminent 
poet.  The  inhabitants  of  that  country  look  upon  what  are 
properly  styled  literary  pursuits  with  a  kind  of  disapprobation ; 
and  there  are  towns  of  very  second-rate  importance  in  Europe 
in  which  more  literary  works  are  annually  published  than  in 
the  twenty-four  States  of  the  Union  put  together.  The  spirit  of 
the  Americans  is  averse  to  general  ideas ;  and  it  does  not  seek 
theoretical  discoveries.  Neither  politics  nor  manufactures  di- 
rect them  to  these  occupations ;  and  although  new  laws  are 
perpetually  enacted  in  the  United  States,  no  great  writers  have 
hitherto  inquired  into  the  general  principles  of  their  legislation. 
The  Americans  have  lawyers  and  commentators,  but  no  jur- 
ists;/»  and  they  furnish  examples  rather  than  lessons  to  the 
world.  The  same  observation  applies  to  the  mechanical  arts. 
In  America,  the  inventions  of  Europe  are  adopted  with  sagac- 
ity ;  they  are  perfected,  and  adapted  with  admirable  skill  to  the 
wants  of  the  country.  Manufactures  exist,  but  the  science  of 
manufacture  is  not  cultivated ;  and  they  have  good  workmen, 
but  very  few  inventors.  Fulton  was  obliged  to  proffer  his  ser- 
vices to  foreign  nations  for  a  lon^  time  before  he  was  able  to 
devote  them  to  his  own  country. 

The  observer  who  is  desirous  of  forming  an  opinion  on  the 

h  [This  cannot  be  said  with  truth  of  the  country  of  Kent,  Story,  and  VVhea- 
ton.] 


r 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


3»i 


state  of  instruction  amongst  the  Anglo-Americans  must  con- 
sider the  same  object  from  two  dififcrcnt  points  of  view.  If  he 
only  singles  out  the  learned,  he  will  be  astonished  to  find  how 
rare  they  are;  but  if  he  counts  the  ignorant,  the  American 
people  will  appear  to  be  the  most  enlightened  community  in 
the  world.  The  whole  population,  as  I  observed  in  another 
place,  is  situated  belween  those  two  extremes.  In  New  Eng- 
land, every  citizen  receives  the  elementary  notions  of  human 
knowledge ;  he  is  moreover  taught  the  doctrines  and  the  evi- 
dences of  his  religion,  the  history  of  his  country,  and  the  leading 
features  of  its  Constitution.  In  the  States  of  Connecticut  and 
Massachusetts,  it  is  extremely  rare  to  find  a  man  imperfectly 
acquainted  with  all  these  things,  and  a  person  wholly  ignorant 
of  them  is  a  sort  of  phenomenon. 

When  I  compare  the  Greek  and  Roman  republics  with  these 
American  States ;  the  manuscript  libraries  of  the  former,  and 
their  rude  population,  with  the  innumerable  journals  and  the 
enlightened  people  of  the  latter ;  when  I  remember  all  the  at- 
tempts which  are  made  to  judge  the  modern  republics  by  the 
assistance  of  those  of  antiquity,  and  to  infer  what  will  happen 
in  our  time  from  what  took  place  two  thousand  years  ago,  I 
am  tempted  to  burn  my  books,  in  order  to  apply  none  but  novel 
ideas  to  so  novel  a  condition  of  society. 

What  I  have  said  of  New  England  must  not,  however,  be  ap- 
plied indistinctly  to  the  whole  Union ;  as  we  advance  towards 
the  West  or  the  South,  the  instruction  of  the  people  diminishes. 
In  the  States  which  are  adjacent  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  a  cer- 
tain number  of  individuals  may  be  found,  as  in  our  own  coun- 
tries, who  are  devoid  of  the  rudiments  of  instruction.  But  there 
is  not  a  single  district  in  the  United  States  sunk  in  complete  ig- 
norance ;  and  for  a  very  simple  reason :  the  peoples  of  Europe 
started  from  the  darkness  of  a  barbarous  condition,  to  advance 
toward  the  light  of  civilization ;  their  progress  has  been  un- 
equal ;  some  of  them  have  improved  apace,  whilst  others  have 
loitered  in  their  course,  and  some  have  stopped,  and  are  still 
sleeping  upon  the  way.*' 

Such  has  not  been  the  case  in  the  United  States.    The  Anglo- 


»'  [In  the  Northern  States  the  num- 
ber of  persons  destitute  of  instruction  is 
inconsiderable,  the  largest  number  be- 
ing 341,152  in  the  State  of  New  York 
(according  to  Spaulding's  "  Handbook 

Vol.  I.— 21 


of  American  Statistics  "  for  1874) ;  but 
in  the  South  no  less  than  1,516,339 
whites  and  2,671,396  colored  persons  are 
returned  as  "illiterate."] 


u 


I    I '. 


f  'y 


322 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


Americans  settled  in  a  state  of  civilization,  upon  that  territory 
which  their  descendants  occupy ;  they  had  not  to  begin  to  learn, 
and  it  was  sufficient  for  them  not  to  forget.  Now  the  children 
of  these  same  Americans  are  the  persons  who,  year  by  year, 
transport  their  dwellings  into  the  wilds ;  and  with  their  dwell- 
ings their  acquired  information  and  their  esteem  for  knowledge. 
Education  has  taught  them  the  utility  of  instruction,  and  has 
enabled  them  to  transmit  that  instruction  to  their  posterity.  In 
the  United  States  society  has  no  infancy,  but  it  is  born  in  man's 
estate. 

The  Americans  never  use  the  word  "  peasant,"  because  they 
have  no  idea  of  the  peculiar  class  which  that  term  denotes ;  the 
ignorance  of  more  remote  ages,  the  simplicity  of  rural  life,  and 
the  rusticity  of  the  villager  have  not  been  preserved  amongst 
them ;  and  they  are  alike  unacquainted  with  the  virtues,  the 
vices,  the  coarse  habits,  and  the  simple  graces  of  an  early  stage 
of  civilization.  At  the  extreme  borders  of  the  Confederate 
States,  upon  the  confines  of  society  and  of  the  wilderness,  a 
population  of  bold  adventurers  have  taken  up  their  abode,  who 
pierce  the  solitudes  of  the  American  woods,  and  seek  a  coun- 
try there,  in  order  to  escape  that  poverty  which  awaited  them 
in  their  native  provinces.  As  soon  as  the  pioneer  arrives  upon 
the  spot  which  is  to  serve  him  for  a  retreat,  he  fells  a  few  trees 
and  builds  a  loghouse.  Nothing  can  ofTer  a  more  miserable 
aspect  than  these  isolated  dwellings.  The  traveller  who  ap- 
proaches one  of  them  towards  nightfall,  sees  the  flicker  of  the 
hearth-flame  through  the  chinks  in  the  walls ;  and  at  night,  if 
the  wind  rises,  he  hears  the  roof  of  boughs  shake  to  and  fro  in 
the  midst  of  the  great  forest  trees.  Who  would  not  suppose 
that  this  poor  hut  is  the  asylum  of  rudeness  and  ignorance? 
Yet  no  sort  of  comparison  can  be  drawn  between  the  pioneer 
and  the  dwelling  which  shelters  him.  Everything  about  him 
is  primitive  and  unformed,  but  he  is  himself  the  result  of  the 
labor  and  the  experience  of  eighteen  centuries.  He  wears  the 
dress,  and  he  speaks  the  language  of  cities ;  he  is  acquainted 
with  the  past,  curious  of  the  future,  and  ready  for  argument 
upon  the  present ;  he  is,  in  short,  a  highly  civilized  being,  who 
consents,  for  a  time,  to  inhabit  the  backwoods,  and  who  pene- 
trates into  the  wilds  of  the  New  World  with  the  Bible,  an  axe, 
and  a  file  of  newspapers. 

It  is  difficult  to  imagine  the  incredible  rapidity  with  which 


:  \  > 


i'ih 


'U 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


323 


public  opinion  circulates  in  the  midst  of  these  deserts.;"  I  do 
not  think  that  so  much  intellectual  intercourse  takes  place  in  the 
most  enlightened  and  populous  districts  of  France.^  It  cannot 
be  doubted  that,  in  the  United  States,  the  instruction  of  the  peo- 
ple powerfully  contributes  to  the  support  of  a  democratic  re- 
public ;  and  such  must  always  be  the  case,  I  believe,  where  in- 
struction which  awakens  the  understanding  is  not  separated 
from  moral  education  which  amends  the  heart.  But  I  by  no 
means  exaggerate  this  benefit,  and  I  am  still  further  from  think- 
ing, as  so  many  people  do  think  in  Europe,  that  men  can  be 
instantaneously  made  citizens  by  teaching  them  to  read  and 
write.  True  information  is  mainly  derived  from  experience; 
and  if  the  Americans  had  not  been  gradually  accustomed  to 
govern  themselves,  their  book-learning  would  not  assist  them 
much  at  the  present  day. 

I  have  lived  a  great  deal  with  the  people  in  the  United  States, 
and  I  cannot  express  how  much  I  admire  their  experience  and 
their  good  sense.  An  American  should  never  be  allowed  to 
speak  of  Europe ;  for  he  will  then  probably  display  a  vast  deal  of 
presumption  and  very  foolish  pride.  He  will  take  up  with  those 
crude  and  vague  notions  which  are  so  useful  to  the  ignorant  all 
over  the  world.  But  if  you  question  him  respecting  his  own 
country,  the  cloud  which  dimmed  his  intelligence  will  immedi- 
ately disperse ;  his  language  will  become  as  clear  and  as  pre- 
cise as  his  thoughts.  He  will  inform  you  what  his  rights  are, 
and  by  what  means  he  exercises  them  ;  he  will  be  able  to  point 
out  the  customs  which  obtain  in  the  political  world.    You  will 


; 


I    >l 


|i/ 


,1  ' 


;■  I  travelled  along  a  portion  of  the 
frontier  of  the  United  States  in  a  sort 
of  cart  which  was  termed  the  mail.  We 
passed,  day  and  night,  with  great  rapid- 
ity along  the  roads  which  were  scarcely 
marked  out,  through  immense  forests; 
when  the  gloom  of  the  woods  hecame 
impenetrable  the  coachman  lighted 
branches  of  fir,  and  we  journeyed  along 
by  the  light  they  cast.  From  time  to 
time  we  came  to  a  hut  in  the  midst  of 
the  forest,  which  was  a  post-office.  The 
mail  dropped  an  cmirmous  bundle  of 
letters  at  the  door  of  this  isolated  dwell- 
ing, and  we  pursued  our  way  at  full  gal- 
lop, leaving  the  inhabitants  of  the 
neij'iboring  log  houses  to  send  for  their 
share  of  the  treasure. 

[When  the  author  visited  America 
the  locomotive  and  the  railroad  were 
scarcely  invented,  and  not  yet  intro- 
duced in  the  United  States.  It  is  super- 
fluous to  point  out  the  immense  effect 
of  those  inventions  in  extending  civili- 
zation and  developing  the  resources  of 


that  vast  continent.  In  1831  there  were 
51  miles  of  railway  in  the  United  States; 
m  i!<72  there  were  60,000  miles  of  rail- 
way.] 

k  In  1832  each  inhabitant  of  Michigan 
paid  a  sum  equivalent  to  i  fr.  ;2  cent. 
(French  money)  to  the  post-officp  rev- 
enue, and  each  inhabitant  of  the  Flori- 
das  paid  i  fr.  5  cent.  (See  "  Natioria! 
Calendar,"  1833,  )>.  244.)  In  the  same 
year  each  inhabitant  of  the  Dcpartement 
du  Nord  paid  i  fr.  4  cent,  to  the  rev- 
enue of  the  French  post-office.  (See 
the  "  Comptc  rendu  dc  I'administratinn 
dcs  Finances,"  1833,  p.  623.)  Now  the 
State  of  Michigan  only  contained  at 
that  time  7  inhabitants  per  square  leaeue 
and  Florida  only  5  :  the  public  instruc- 
tion and  the  commercial  activity  of  these 
districts  is  inferior  to  thic  of  most  o' 
the  States  in  the  Union,  whilst  the  Dc- 
partement du  Nord,  which  contains 
3,400  inhabitants  per  square  league,  is 
one  of  the  most  enlightened  and  manu- 
facturing parts  of  France. 


i        ^ 


i    P 


..,.-.  r«^'- 


324 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


find  that  he  is  well  acquainted  with  the  rules  of  the  administra- 
tion, and  that  he  is  familiar  with  the  mechanism  of  the  laws. 
The  citizen  of  the  United  States  does  not  acquire  his  practical 
science  and  his  positive  notions  from  books;  the  instruction 
he  has  acquired  may  have  prepared  him  for  receiving  those 
ideas,  but  it  did  not  furnish  them.  The  American  learns  to 
know  the  laws  by  participating  in  the  act  of  legislation ;  and 
he  takes  a  lesson  in  the  forms  of  government  from  governing. 
The  great  work  of  society  is  ev-r  going  on  beneath  his  eyes, 
and,  as  it  were,  under  his  hands. 

In  the  United  States  politics  are  the  end  and  aim  of  education ; 
in  Europe  its  principal  object  is  to  fit  men  for  private  life.  The 
interference  of  the  citizens  in  public  afifairs  is  too  rare  an  occur- 
rence for  it  to  be  anticipated  beforehand.  Upon  casting  a 
glance  over  society  in  the  two  hemispheres,  these  differences 
are  indicated  even  by  its  external  aspect. 

In  Europe  we  frequently  introduce  the  ideas  and  the  habits 
of  private  life  into  public  afifairs ;  and  as  we  pass  at  once  from 
the  domestic  circle  to  the  government  of  the  State,  we  may 
frequently  be  heard  to  discuss  the  great  interests  of  society  in 
the  same  manner  in  which  we  converse  with  our  friends.  The 
Americans,  on  the  other  hand,  transfuse  the  habits  of  pablic 
life  into  their  manners  in  private ;  and  in  theii  country  the  jury 
is  introduced  into  the  games  of  schoolboys,  and  parliamentary 
forms  are  observed  in  the  order  of  a  feast. 


The  Laws  Contribute  More  to  the  Maintenance  of  the 
Democratic  Republic  in  the  United  States  Than  the 
Physical  Circumstances  of  the  Country,  and  the 
Manners  More  Than  the  Laws 


All  the  nations  of  America  have  a  democratic  state  of  society — Yet  der- 
ocratic  institutions  only  subsist  amongst  the  Anglo-Americans — flie 
Spaniards  of  South  America,  equally  favored  by  physical  c.iuses 
as  the  Anglo-Americans,  unable  to  maintain  a  democratic  icfiiblii: 
— Mexico,  which  has  adopted  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States, 
in  the  same  predicament — The  Anglo-Americans  of  the  West  less 
able  to  maintain  it  than  those  of  the  East — Reason  of  these  different 
results. 

I  have  remarked  that  the  maintenance  of  democratic  insti- 
tutions in  the  United  States  is  attributable  to  the  circumstances. 


■5  ! 
i 


N^ 


m   ' 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


325 


the  laws,  and  the  manners  of  that  country./  Most  Europeans 
are  only  acquainted  with  the  first  of  these  three  causes,  and  they 
are  apt  to  give  it  a  preponderating  importance  which  it  does  not 
really  possess. 

It  is  true  that  the  Anglo-Saxons  settled  in  the  New  World  in 
a  state  of  social  equality ;  the  low-born  and  the  noble  were  not 
to  be  found  amongst  them ;  and  professional  prejudices  were 
always  as  entirely  unknown  as  the  prejudices  of  birth.  Thus, 
as  the  condition  of  society  was  democratic,  the  empire  of  de- 
mocracy was  established  without  difficulty.  But  this  circum- 
stance is  by  no  means  peculiar  to  the  United  States ;  almost  all 
the  trans- Atlantic  colonies  were  founded  by  men  equal  amongst 
themselves,  or  who  became  so  by  inhabiting  them.  In  no  one 
part  of  the  New  World  have  Europeans  been  able  to  create  ^n 
aristocracy.  Nevertheless,  democratic  institutions  prosper  no- 
where but  in  the  United  States. 

The  American  Union  has  no  enemies  to  contend  with ;  it 
stands  in  the  wilds  like  an  island  in  the  ocean.  But  the  Span- 
iards of  South  America  were  no  less  isolated  by  nature ;  yet 
their  position  has  not  relieved  them  from  the  charge  of  stand- 
ing armies.  They  make  war  upon  each  other  when  they  have 
no  foreign  enemies  to  oppose;  and  the  Anglo-American  de- 
mocracy is  the  only  one  which  has  hitherto  been  able  to  main- 
tain itself  in  peace.wt 

The  territory  of  the  Union  presents  a  boundless  field  to  hu- 
man activity,  and  inexhaustible  materials  for  industry  and  labor. 
The  passion  of  wealth  takes  the  place  of  ambition,  and  the 
warmth  of  faction  is  mitigated  by  a  sense  of  prosperity.  But 
in  what  portion  of  the  globe  shall  we  meet  with  more  fertile 
plains,  with  mightier  rivers,  or  with  more  unexplored  and  in- 
exhaustible riches  than  in  South  America? 

Nevertheless,  South  America  has  been  unable  to  maintain 
democratic  institutions.  If  the  welfare  of  nations  depended  on 
their  being  placed  in  a  remote  position,  with  an  unbounded 
space  of  habitable  territory  before  them,  the  Spaniards  of  South 
America  would  have  no  reason  to  complain  of  their  fate.  And 
although  they  might  enjoy  less  prosperity  than  the  inhabitants 
of  the  United  States,  their  lot  might  still  be  such  as  to  excite 


/ 1  remind  the  reader  of  the  general 
siRnification  which  I  Rive  to  the  word 
"  manners,"  namely,  the  moral  and  in- 
tellectual characteristics  of  social  man 
taken  collectively. 


Ml  [A  remark  which,  since  the  great 
Civil  War  of  1861-65,  ceases  to  be  ap- 
plicable.] 


«    '1 


fi 


i  y 


a 


1 

■ 

1 

1 

i 
1 

1 
1 

i  ^f   ! 


326 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


the  envy  of  some  nations  in  Europe.  There  are,  however,  no 
nations  upon  the  face  of  the  earth  more  miserable  than  those  of 
South  America. 

Thus,  not  only  are  physical  causes  inadequate  to  produce  re- 
sults analogous  to  those  which  occur  in  North  America,  but 
they  are  unable  to  raise  the  population  of  South  America  above 
the  level  of  European  States,  where  they  act  in  a  contrary  direc- 
tion. Physical  causes  do  not,  therefore,  afifect  the  destiny  of 
nations  so  much  as  has  been  supposed. 

I  have  met  with  men  in  New  England  who  were  on  the  point 
of  leaving  a  country,  where  they  might  have  remained  in  easy 
circumstances,  to  go  to  seek  their  fortune  in  the  wilds.  Not 
far  from  that  district  I  found  a  French  population  in  Canada, 
which  was  closely  crowded  on  a  narrow  territory,  although  the 
same  wilds  were  at  hand ;  and  whilst  the  emigrant  from  the 
United  States  purchased  an  extensive  estate  with  the  earnings 
of  a  short  term  of  labor,  the  Canadian  paid  as  much  for  land  as 
he  would  have  done  in  France.  Nature  ofifers  the  solitudes  of 
the  New  World  to  Europeans ;  but  they  are  not  always  ac- 
quainted with  the  means  of  turning  her  gifts  to  account.  Other 
peoples  of  America  have  the  same  physical  conditions  of  pros- 
perity as  the  Anglo-Americans,  but  without  their  lawi=  and 
their  manners;  and  these  peoples  are  wretched.  The  laws 
and  manners  of  the  Anglo-Americans  are  therefore  that  effi- 
cient cause  of  their  greatness  which  is  the  object  of  my  inquiry. 

I  am  far  from  supposing  that  the  American  laws  are  pre- 
eminently good  in  themselves ;  I  do  not  hold  them  to  be  ap- 
plicable to  all  democratic  peoples ;  and  several  of  them  seem 
to  be  dangerous,  even  in  the  United  States.  Nevertheless, 
it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  American  legislation,  taken 
collectively,  is  extremely  well  adapted  to  the  genius  of  the 
people  and  the  nature  of  the  country  which  it  is  intended  to 
govern.  The  American  laws  are  therefore  good,  and  to  them 
must  be  attributed  a  large  portion  of  the  success  which  attends 
the  government  of  democracy  in  America:  but  I  do  not  be- 
lieve them  to  be  the  principal  cause  of  that  success ;  and  if 
they  seem  to  me  to  have  more  influence  upon  the  social  happi- 
ness of  the  Americans  than  the  nature  of  the  country,  on  the 
other  hand  there  is  reason  to  believe  that  their  effect  is  still 
inferior  to  that  produced  by  the  manners  of  the  people. 

The  Federal  laws  undoubtedly  constitute  the  most  important 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


3*7 


part  of  the  legislation  of  the  United  States.  Mexico,  which  is 
not  less  fortunately  situated  than  the  Anglo-American  Union, 
has  adopted  the  same  laws,  hut  is  unable  to  accustom  itself  to 
the  government  of  democracy.  Some  other  cause  is  therefore 
at  work,  independently  of  those  physical  circumstances  and 
peculiar  laws  which  enable  the  democracy  to  rule  in  the  United 
Slates. 

Another  still  more  striking  proof  may  be  adduced.  Almost 
all  the  inhabitants  of  the  territory  of  the  Union  are  the  de- 
scendants of  a  common  stock ;  they  speak  the  same  language, 
they  worship  God  in  the  same  manner,  they  are  affected  by  the 
same  physical  causes,  and  they  obey  the  same  laws.  Whence, 
then,  do  their  characteristic  differences  arise?  Why,  in  the 
Eastern  States  of  the  Union,  does  the  republican  government 
display  vigor  and  regularity,  and  proceed  with  mature  delibera- 
tion? Whence  does  it  derive  the  wisdom  and  the  durability 
which  mark  its  acts,  whilst  in  the  Western  States,  on  the  con- 
trary, society  seems  to  be  ruled  by  the  powers  of  chance? 
There,  public  business  is  conducted  with  an  irregularity  and  a 
passionate  and  feverish  excitement,  which  does  not  announce 
a  long  or  sure  duration. 

I  am  no  longer  comparing  the  A '"^glo- American  States  to 
foreign  nations;  but  I  am  contrasting  them  with  each  other, 
and  endeavoring  to  discover  why  they  are  so  unlike.  The 
arguments  which  are  derived  from  the  nature  of  the  country 
and  the  difference  of  legislation  are  here  all  set  aside.  Re- 
course must  be  had  to  some  other  cause ;  and  what  other  cause 
can  there  be  except  the  manners  of  the  people? 

It  is  in  the  Eastern  States  that  the  Anglo-Americans  have 
been  longest  accustomed  to  the  government  of  democracy, 
and  tliat  they  have  adopted  the  habits  and  conceived  the  notions 
most  favorable  to  its  maintenance.  Democracy  has  gradually 
penetrated  into  their  customs,  their  opinions,  and  the  forms 
of  social  intercourse ;  it  is  to  be  found  in  all  the  details  of  daily 
life  equally  as  in  the  laws.  In  the  Eastern  States  the  instruc- 
tion and  practical  education  of  the  people  have  been  most  per- 
fected, and  religion  has  been  most  thoroughly  amalgamated 
with  liberty.  Now  these  habits,  opinions,  customs,  and  con- 
victions are  precisely  the  constituent  elements  of  that  which  I 
have  denominated  manners. 

In  the  Western  States,  on  the  contrary,  a  portion  of  the  same 


s        Jfl 


i  It  I 


l!    ■» 


f  l 


328 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


i  ♦ 


advantages  is  still  wanting.  Many  of  the  Americans  of  the 
West  were  born  in  the  woods,  and  they  mix  the  ideas  and  the 
customs  of  savage  life  with  the  civilization  of  their  parents. 
Their  passions  are  more  intense;  their  religious  morality  less 
authoritative;  and  their  convictions  loss  secure.  The  inhabi- 
tants exercise  no  sort  of  control  over  their  fellow-citizens,  for 
they  are  scarcely  acquainted  with  each  other.  The  nations  of 
the  West  display,  to  a  certain  extent,  the  inexperience  and  the 
rude  habits  of  a  people  in  its  infancy;  for  although  they  are 
composed  of  old  elements,  their  assemblage  is  of  recent  date. 

The  manners  of  the  Americans  of  the  United  States  are, 
then,  the  real  cause  which  renders  that  people  the  only  one  of 
the  American  nations  that  is  able  to  support  a  democratic  gov- 
ernment; and  it  is  the  influence  of  manners  which  produces 
the  different  degrees  of  order  and  of  prosperity  that  may  be 
distinguished  in  the  several  Anglo-American  democracies. 
Thus  the  effect  which  the  geographical  position  of  a  country 
may  have  upon  the  duration  of  democratic  institutions  is  ex- 
aggerated in  Europe.  Too  much  importance  is  attributed  to 
legislation,  too  little  to  manners.  These  three  great  causes 
serve,  no  doubt,  to  regulate  and  direct  the  American  democ- 
racy; but  if  they  were  to  be  classed  in  their  proper  order,  I 
should  say  that  the  physical  circumstances  are  less  efficient 
than  the  laws,  and  the  laws  very  subordinate  to  the  manners  of 
the  people.  I  am  convinced  that  the  most  advantageous  situa- 
tion and  the  best  possible  laws  cannot  maintain  a  constitution 
in  spite  of  the  manners  of  a  country;  whilst  the  latter  may 
turn  the  most  unfavorable  positions  and  the  worst  laws  to  some 
advantage.  The  importance  of  manners  is  a  common  truth 
to  which  study  and  experience  incessantly  direct  our  attention. 
It  may  be  regarded  as  a  central  point  in  the  range  of  human  ob- 
servation, and  the  common  termination  of  all  inquiry.  So 
seriously  do  I  insist  upon  this  head,  that  if  T  have  hitherto 
failed  in  making  the  reader  feel  the  important  influence  which 
I  attribute  to  the  practical  experience,  the  habits,  the  opinions, 
in  short,  to  the  manners  of  the  Americans,  upon  the  main- 
tenance of  their  institutions,  I  have  failed  in  the  principal  ob- 
ject of  my  work. 


\-C 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


3*9 


Whether  Laws  and  Manners  Are  Sufficient  to  Main- 
tain Democratic  Institutions  in  Other  Countries 
Besides  America 

The  Anglo-Americans,  if  transported  into  Europe,  would  be  obliged  to 
modify  their  laws — Distinction  to  be  made  between  democratic  in- 
stitutions and  American  institutions — Democratic  laws  may  be  con- 
ceived better  than,  or  at  least  different  from,  those  which  the 
American  democracy  has  adopted — The  example  of  America  only 
proves  that  it  is  possible  to  regulate  democracy  by  the  assistance 
of  manners  and  legislation. 

I  have  iisserted  that  the  success  of  democratic  institutions 
in  the  United  States  is  more  intimately  connected  with  the  laws 
themselves,  and  the  manners  of  the  people,  than  with  the  nature 
of  the  country.  But  docs  it  follow  that  the  same  causes  would 
of  themselves  produce  the  same  results,  if  they  were  put  into 
operation  elsewhere;  and  if  the  country  is  no  adequate  sub- 
stitute for  laws  and  manners,  can  laws  and  manners  in  their 
turn  prove  a  substitute  for  the  country?  It  will  readily  be 
understood  that  the  necessary  elements  of  a  reply  to  this  (jncs- 
tion  are  wanting:  other  peoples  are  to  be  found  in  the  New 
World  besides  the  Anglo-Americans,  and  as  these  people  are 
affected  by  the  same  physical  circumstances  as  the  latter,  they 
may  fairly  be  compared  together.  But  there  are  no  nations 
out  of  America  which  have  adopted  the  same  laws  and  man- 
ners, being  destitute  of  the  physical  advantages  peculiar  to  the 
Anglo-Americans.  No  standard  of  comparison  therefore  ex- 
ists, and  we  can  only  hazard  an  opinion  upon  this  subject. 

It  appears  to  me,  in  the  first  place,  that  a  careful  distinction 
must  be  made  between  the  institutions  of  the  United  States  and 
democratic  institutions  in  general.  When  I  reflect  upon  the 
state  of  Europe,  its  mighty  nations,  its  populous  cities,  its 
formidable  armies,  and  the  complex  nature  of  its  politics,  I  can- 
not suppose  that  even  the  Anglo-Americans,  if  they  were  trans- 
ported to  our  hemisphere,  with  their  ideas,  their  religion,  and 
their  manners,  could  exist  without  considerably  altering  their 
laws.  But  a  democratic  nation  may  be  imagined,  organized 
diflferently  from  the  American  people.  It  is  not  impossible  to 
conceive  a  government  really  established  upon  the  will  of  the 
majority;  but  in  which  the  majority,  repressing  its  natural 
propensity  to  equality,  should  consent,  with  a  view  to  the  order 
and  the  stability  of  the  State,  to  invest  a  family  or  an  indi- 


ii  n 


i 


if  i*" 


I  -3 


II  ill 


'1 


V   ! 


33° 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


u 


;l 


i  ( 


vidnal  with  all  the  prerogatives  of  the  executive.  A  democratic 
society  might  exist,  in  which  the  forces  of  tlie  nation  would  be 
more  centralized  than  they  are  in  the  United  States;  the  peo- 
ple would  exercise  a  less  direct  and  less  irresistible  influence 
upon  public  affairs,  and  yet  every  citizen  invested  with  certain 
rights  would  participate,  within  his  sphere,  in  the  conduct  of 
the  government.  The  observations  I  made  amongst  the  Anglo- 
Americans  induce  me  to  believe  that  democratic  institutions  of 
this  kind,  prudently  introduced  into  society,  so  as  gradually 
to  mix  with  the  habits  and  to  be  interfused  with  the  opinions  of 
the  people,  might  subsist  in  other  countries  besides  America. 
If  the  laws  of  the  United  States  were  the  only  imaginable 
democratic  laws,  or  the  most  perfect  which  it  is  possible  to  con- 
ceive, I  should  admit  that  the  success  of  those  institutions  af- 
fords no  proof  of  the  success  of  democratic  institutions  in 
general,  in  a  country  less  favored  by  natural  circumstances. 
But  as  the  laws  of  America  appear  to  me  to  be  defective  in 
several  respects,  and  as  I  can  readily  imagine  others  of  the 
same  general  nature,  the  peculiar  advantages  of  that  country  do 
not  prove  that  democratic  institutions  cannot  succeed  in  a  na- 
tion less  favored  by  circumstances,  if  ruled  by  better  laws. 

If  human  nature  were  different  in  America  from  what  it  is 
elsewhere;  or  if  the  social  condition  of  the  Americans  engen- 
dered habits  and  opinions  amongst  them  different  from  those 
which  originate  in  the  same  social  condition  in  the  Old  World, 
the  American  democracies  would  afford  no  means  of  predict- 
ing what  may  occur  in  other  democracies.  If  the  Americans 
displayed  the  same  propensities  as  all  other  democratic  na- 
tions, and  if  their  legislators  had  relied  upon  the  nature  of  the 
country  and  the  favor  of  circumstances  to  restrain  those  pro- 
pensities within  due  limits,  the  prosperity  of  the  United  States 
would  be  exclusively  attributable  to  physical  causes,  and  it 
would  afford  no  encouragement  to  a  people  inclined  to  imitate 
their  example,  without  sharing  their  natural  advantages.  But 
neither  of  these  suppositions  is  borne  out  by  facts. 

In  America  the  same  passions  are  to  be  met  with  as  in 
Europe ;  some  originating  in  human  nature,  others  in  the 
democratic  condition  of  society.  Thus  in  the  United  States  I 
found  that  restlessness  of  heart  which  is  natural  to  men,  when 
all  ranks  are  nearly  equal  and  the  chances  of  elevation  are  the 
same  to  all.    I  found  the  democratic  feeling  of  envy  expressed 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


33< 


under  a  thousand  different  foims.  I  remarked  that  the  people 
frequently  displayed,  in  the  conduct  of  affairs,  a  consummate 
mixture  of  ignorance  and  presumption;  and  I  inferred  that  in 
America,  men  are  liable  to  the  same  failings  and  the  same  ab- 
surdities as  amongst  ourselves.  But  upon  examining  the  state 
of  society  more  attentively,  I  speedily  discovered  that  the 
Americans  had  made  great  and  successful  efforts  to  counteract 
these  imperfections  of  human  nature,  and  to  correct  the  natural 
defects  of  democracy.  Their  divers  municipal  laws  appeared 
to  me  to  be  a  means  of  restraining  the  ambition  of  the  citizens 
vi'ithin  a  narrow  sphere,  and  of  turning  those  same  passions 
which  might  have  worked  havoc  in  the  State,  to  the  good  of 
the  township  or  the  parish.  The  American  legislators  have 
succeeded  to  a  certain  extent  in  opposing  the  notion  of  rights 
to  the  feelings  of  envy ;  the  permanence  of  the  religious  world 
to  the  continual  shifting  of  politics ;  the  experience  of  the  peo- 
ple to  its  theoretical  ignorance ;  and  its  practical  knowledge  of 
business  to  the  impatience  of  its  desires. 

The  Americans,  then,  have  not  relied  upon  the  nature  of  their 
country  to  counterpoise  those  dangers  which  originate  in  their 
Constitution  and  in  their  political  laws.  To  evils  which  are 
common  to  all  democratic  peoples  they  have  applied  remedies 
which  none  but  themselves  had  ever  thought  of  before ;  and  al- 
though they  were  the  first  to  make  the  experiment,  they  have 
succeeded  in  it. 

The  manners  and  laws  of  the  Americans  are  not  the  only 
ones  which  may  suit  a  democratic  people ;  but  the  Americans 
have  shown  that  it  would  be  wrong  to  despair  of  regulating 
democracy  by  the  aid  of  manners  and  of  laws.  If  other  na- 
tions should  borrow  this  general  and  pregnant  idea  from  the 
Americans,  without  however  intending  to  imitate  them  in  the 
peculiar  application  which  they  have  made  of  it ;  if  they  should 
attempt  to  fit  themselves  for  that  social  condition,  which  it 
seems  to  be  the  will  of  Providence  to  impose  upon  the  genera- 
tions of  this  age,  and  so  to  escape  from  the  despotism  or  the 
anarchy  which  threatens  them ;  what  reason  is  there  to  suppose 
that  their  efforts  would  not  be  crowned  with  success?  The 
organization  and  the  establishment  of  democracy  in  Christen- 
dom is  the  great  political  problem  of  the  time.  The  Americans, 
unquestionably,  have  not  resolved  this  problem,  but  they  fur- 
nish useful  data  to  those  who  undertake  the  task. 


)\ 


r 


I 


I      l! 


t' 


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■ 


<  h 


I 


e\ 


H 


332 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


I    ^^'- 


Imtortance  of  What   J 'recedes   with   Respect  to  the 

State  ok  Europe 

It  may  readily  be  rliscovercd  with  what  intention  I  under- 
took the  foregoing  inquiries.  The  question  here  discussed  is 
interesting  not  only  to  the  L  .lited  States,  but  to  the  whole 
world;  k  cuikltps,  not  a  nation,  but  all  mankind.  If  those 
nations  whose  social  condition  is  democratic  could  only  remain 
free  as  long  as  thoy  are  inhabitants  of  the  wilds,  we  could  not 
but  despair  of  llu  future  destiny  of  the  human  race;  for  de- 
mocracy is  rapidly  acquiring  a  more  extended  sway,  and  the 
wilds  are  gradually  peopled  with  men.  If  it  were  true  that 
laws  and  manners  are  insufficient  to  maintain  democratic  in- 
stitutions, what  refuge  would  remain  open  to  the  nations,  ex- 
cept the  despotism  of  a  single  individual?  I  am  aware  tli 
there  are  many  worthy  persons  at  the  present  time  who 
not  alarmed  at  this  lattc-  alternative,  and  who  are  so  tired  of 
liberty  as  to  be  glad  of  repose,  far  from  those  storms  by  which 
it  is  attended.  But  these  individuals  arc  ill  acquainted  with  the 
haven  towards  which  they  are  bound.  They  are  so  deluded 
by  their  recollections,  as  to  judge  the  tendency  of  absolute 
power  by  what  it  was  formerly,  and  not  by  what  it  might  be- 
come at  the  present  time. 

If  absolute  power  were  re-established  amongst  the  demo- 
cratic nations  of  Europe,  I  am  persuaded  that  it  would  assume 
a  new  form,  and  appear  under  features  unknown  to  our  fore- 
fathers. There  was  a  time  in  Europe  when  the  laws  and  the 
consent  of  the  people  had  invested  princes  with  almost  unlim- 
ited authority ;  but  they  scarcely  ever  availed  themselves  of  it. 
I  do  not  speak  of  the  prerogatives  of  the  nobility,  of  the  au- 
thority of  supreme  courts  of  justice,  of  corporations  and  their 
chartered  rights,  or  of  provincial  privileges,  which  served  to 
break  the  blows  of  the  sovereign  authority,  and  to  maintain  a 
spirit  of  resistance  in  the  nation.  Independently  of  these  po- 
litical institutions — which,  however  opposed  they  might  be  to 
personal  liberty,  served  to  keep  alive  the  love  of  freedom  in 
the  mind  of  the  public,  and  which  may  be  esteemed  to  have 
been  useful  in  this  respect — the  manners  and  opinions  of  the 
nation  confined  the  royal  authority  within  barriers  which  were 
not  less  powerful,  although  they  were  less  conspicuous.  Re- 
ligion, the  aflfections  of  the  people,  the  benevolence  of  the 


•  t 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


333 


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prince,  the  sense  of  honor,  family  pride,  provincial  prejudices, 
custotn,  and  public  opinion  limited  the  power  of  kinf"  and  re- 
straine('.  their  authority  within  an  invisible  circle.  ',  <u  consti- 
tution of  nations  was  despotic  at  that  time,  bf'  ''icir  rr..inners 
were  free.  Princes  had  the  right,  but  they  1  .d  neither  the 
means  nor  the  desire,  of  doing  wliatever  they  pleased. 

But  what  now  remains  of  those  barriers  which  formerly  ar- 
rested the  aggressions  of  tyranny?  Since  religion  has  lost  its 
empire  over  the  souls  of  men,  the  most  prominent  boundary 
which  divided  good  from  evil  is  overthrown ;  the  very  elements 
of  the  moral  world  are  indeterminate ;  the  princes  and  the  peo- 
ples of  the  earth  are  n^i'ied  by  chance,  and  none  can  define  the 
natural  limits  of  despMiisni  and  the  bounds  of  license.  Long 
revolutions  have  forever  destroyed  the  respect  which  sur- 
rounded the  rulers  of  tht*  State ;  and  since  they  have  been  re- 
lieved from  the  burden  of  public  esteem,  princes  may  hence- 
forward surrender  themselves  without  fear  to  the  seductions  of 
arbitrary  power. 

When  kings  find  that  the  hearts  of  their  subjects  arc  turned 
towards  them,  they  are  clement,  because  they  are  conscious  of 
their  strength,  and  they  are  chary  of  the  affection  of  their 
people,  because  the  affection  of  their  people  is  the  bulwark  of 
the  throne.  A  mutual  interchange  of  good-will  then  takes 
place  between  the  prince  and  the  people,  which  resembles  the 
gracious  intercourse  of  domestic  society.  The  subjects  may 
murmur  at  the  sovereign's  decree,  but  they  are  grieved  to  dis- 
please him;  and  the  sovereign  chastises  his  jubjec*:,  with  the 
light  hand  of  parental  affection. 

But  when  once  the  spell  of  royalty  is  broken  in  the  tumult 
of  revolution;  when  successive  monarchs  have  crossed  the 
throne,  so  as  alternately  to  display  to  the  people  the  weakness 
of  their  right  and  t)ie  harshness  of  their  power,  the  sovereign 
is  no  longer  regarded  by  any  as  the  Father  of  the  State,  and 
he  is  feared  by  all  as  its  master.  If  he  be  weak,  he  is  despised ; 
if  he  be  strong,  he  is  detested.  He  himself  is  full  of  animosity 
and  alarm ;  he  finds  that  he  is  as  a  stranger  in  his  own  country, 
and  he  treats  his  subjects  like  conqtiered  enemies. 

When  the  provinces  and  the  towns  formed  so  many  different 
nations  in  the  midst  of  their  common  country,  each  of  them  had 
a  will  of  its  own,  which  was  opposed  to  the  general  spirit  of 
subjection ;  but  now  that  all  the  parts  of  the  same  empire,  after 


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having  lost  their  immunities,  their  customs,  their  prejudices, 
their  traditions,  and  their  names,  are  subjected  and  accustomed 
to  the  same  laws,  it  is  not  more  difficult  to  oppress  them  col- 
lectively than  it  was  formerly  to  oppress  them  singly. 

Whilst  the  nobles  enjoyed  their  power,  and  indeed  long  after 
that  power  was  lost,  the  honor  of  aristocracy  conferred  an  ex- 
traordinary degree  of  force  upon  their  personal  opposition. 
They  afford  instances  of  men  who,  notwithstanding  their 
weakness,  still  entertained  a  high  opinion  of  their  personal 
value,  and  dared  to  cope  single-handed  with  the  efforts  of  the 
public  authority.  But  at  the  present  day,  when  all  ranks  are 
more  and  more  confounded,  when  the  individual  disappears  in 
the  throng,  and  is  easily  lost  in  the  midst  of  a  common  ob- 
scurity, when  the  honor  of  monarchy  has  almost  lost  its  em- 
pire without  being  succeeded  by  public  virtue,  and  when  noth- 
ing can  enable  man  to  rise  above  himself,  who  shall  say  at  what 
point  the  exigencies  of  power  and  the  servility  of  weakness  will 
stop? 

As  long  as  family  feeling  was  kept  alive,  the  antagonist  of 
oppression  was  never  alone;  he  looked  about  him,  and  found 
his  clients,  his  hereditary  friends,  and  his  kinsfolk.  If  this 
support  was  wanting,  he  was  sustained  by  his  ancestors  and 
animated  by  his  posterity.  But  when  patrimonial  estates  are 
divided,  and  when  a  few  years  suffice  to  confound  the  dis- 
tinctions of  a  race,  where  can  family  feeling  be  found  ?  What 
force  can  there  be  in  the  customs  of  a  country  which  has 
changed  and  is  still  perpetually  changing,  its  aspect ;  in  which 
every  act  of  tyranny  has  a  precedent,  and  every  crime  an  ex- 
ample ;  in  which  there  is  nothing  so  old  that  its  antiquity  can 
save  it  from  destruction,  and  nothing  so  unparalleled  that  its 
novelty  can  prevent  it  from  being  done?  What  resistance  can 
be  offered  by  manners  of  so  pliant  a  make  that  they  have  al- 
ready often  yielded?  What  strength  can  even  public  opinion 
have  retained,  when  no  twenty  persons  are  connected  by  a  com- 
mon tie ;  when  not  a  man,  nor  a  family,  nor  chartered  corpora- 
tion, nor  class,  nor  free  institution,  has  the  power  of  represent- 
ing or  exerting  that  opinion;  and  when  every  citizen — being 
equally  weak,  equally  poor,  and  equally  dependent — has  only 
his  personal  impotence  to  oppose  to  the  organized  force  of  the 
government? 

The  annals  of  France  furnish  nothing  analogous  to  the  con- 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


335 


dition  in  which  that  country  might  then  be  thrown.  But  it 
may  more  aptly  be  assimilated  to  the  times  of  old,  and  to  those 
hideous  eras  of  Roman  oppression,  when  the  manners  of  the 
people  were  corrupted,  their  traditions  obliterated,  their  habits 
destroyed,  their  opinions  shaken,  and  freedom,  expelled  from 
the  laws,  could  find  no  refuge  in  the  land ;  when  nothing  pro- 
tected the  citizens,  and  the  citizens  no  longer  protected  them- 
selves ;  when  human  nature  was  the  sport  of  man,  and  princes 
wearied  out  the  clemency  of  Heaven  before  they  exhausted  the 
patience  of  their  suojects.  Those  who  hope  to  revive  the  mon- 
archy of  Henry  IV  or  of  Louis  XIV,  appear  to  me  to  be  af- 
flicted with  mental  blindness ;  and  when  I  consider  the  present 
condition  of  several  European  nations — a  condition  to  which 
all  the  others  tend — I  am  led  to  believe  that  they  will  soon  be 
left  with  no  other  alternative  than  democratic  liberty,  or  the 
tyranny  of  the  Coesars.M 

And  indeed  it  is  deserving  of  consideration,  whether  men 
are  to  be  entirely  emancipated  or  entirely  enslaved;  whether 
their  rights  are  to  be  made  equal,  or  wholly  taken  away  from 
them.  If  the  rulers  of  society  were  reduced  either  gradually 
to  raise  the  crowd  to  their  own  level,  or  to  sink  the  citizens 
below  that  of  humanity,  would  not  the  doubts  of  many  be  re- 
solved, the  consciences  of  many  be  healed,  and  the  community 
prepared  to  make  great  sacrifices  with  little  difficulty?  In  that 
case,  the  gradual  growth  of  democratic  manners  and  institu- 
tions should  be  regarded,  not  as  the  best,  but  as  the  only  means 
of  preserving  freedom;  and  without  liking  the  government 
of  democracy,  it  might  be  adopted  as  the  most  applicable  and 
the  fairest  remedy  for  the  present  ills  of  society. 

It  is  difficult  to  associate  a  people  in  the  work  of  govern- 
ment ;  but  it  is  still  more  difficult  to  supply  it  with  experience, 
and  to  inspire  it  with  the  feelings  which  it  requires  in  order  to 
govern  well.  I  grant  that  the  caprices  of  democracy  are  per- 
petual; its  instruments  are  rude;  its  laws  imperfect.  But  if 
it  were  true  that  soon  no  just  medium  would  exist  between  the 
empire  of  democracy  and  the  dominion  of  a  single  arm,  should 
we  not  rather  incline  towards  the  former  than  submit  volun- 
tarily to  the  latter  ?    And  if  complete  equality  be  our  fate,  is  it 


l\ 


n  [This  prediction  of  the  return  of 
France  to  imperial  despotism,  and  of 
the    true    character    of    that    despotic 


power,  was  written  in  1833,  and  realized 
to  the  Jetter  in  1852.] 


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DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


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not  better  to  b-  levelled  by  free  institutions  than  by  despotic 
power  ? 

Those  who,  after  having  read  this  book,  should  imagine  that 
my  intention  in  writing  it  has  been  to  propose  the  laws  and 
manners  of  the  Anglo-Americans  for  the  imitation  of  all  demo- 
cratic peoples,  would  commit  a  very  great  mistake ;  they  must 
have  paid  more  attention  to  the  form  than  to  the  substance  of 
my  ideas.  My  aim  has  been  to  show,  by  the  example  of  Ameri- 
ca, that  laws,  and  especially  manners,  may  exist  which  will 
allow  a  democratic  people  to  remain  free.  But  I  am  very  far 
from  thinking  that  we  ought  to  follow  the  example  of  the 
American  democracy,  and  copy  the  means  which  it  has  em- 
ployed to  attain  its  ends ;  for  I  am  well  aware  of  the  influence 
which  the  nature  of  a  country  and  its  political  precedents  exer- 
cise upon  a  constitution ;  and  I  should  regard  it  as  a  great  mis- 
fortune for  mankind  if  liberty  were  to  exist  all  over  the  world 
under  the  same  forms. 

But  I  am  of  opinion  that  if  we  do  not  succeed  in  gradually 
introducing  democratic  institutions  into  France,  and  if  we 
despair  of  imparting  to  the  citizens  those  ideas  and  sentiments 
which  first  prepare  them  for  freedom,  and  afterwards  allow 
them  to  enjoy  it,  there  will  be  no  independence  at  all,  either 
for  the  middling  classes  or  the  nobility,  for  the  poor  or  for  the 
rich,  but  an  equal  tyranny  over  all;  and  I  foresee  that  if  the 
peaceable  empire  of  the  majority  be  not  founded  amongst  us 
in  time,  we  shall  sooner  or  later  arrive  at  the  unlimited  author- 
ity of  a  single  despot,      i 


CHAPTER  XVIII 

THE  PRESENT  AND  PROBABLE  FUTURE  CONDITION  OE 
THE  THREE  RACES  WHICH  INHABIT  THE  TERRITORY 
OF  THE  UNITED  STATES  . 

THE  principal  part  of  the  task  which  I  had  imposed  upon 
myself  is  now  performed.    I  have  shown,  as  far  as  I 
was  able,  the  laws  and  the  manners  of  the  American 
democracy.    Here  I  might  stop ;  but  the  reader  would  perhaps 
feel  that  I  had  not  satisfied  his  expectations. 

The  absolute  supremacy  of  democracy  is  not  all  that  we  meet 
with  in  America;  the  inhabitants  of  the  New  World  may  be 
considered  from  more  than  one  point  of  view.  In  the  course 
of  this  work  my  subject  has  often  led  me  to  speak  of  the 
Indians  and  the  Negroes;  but  I  have  never  been  able  to  stop 
in  order  to  show  what  place  these  two  races  occupy  in  the  midst 
of  the  democratic  people  whom  I  was  engaged  in  describing. 
I  have  mentioned  in  what  spirit,  and  according  to  what  laws, 
the  Anglo-American  Union  was  formed;  but  I  could  only 
glance  at  the  dangers  which  menace  that  confederation,  whilst 
it  was  equally  impossible  for  me  to  give  a  detailed  account  of  its 
chances  of  duration,  independently  of  its  laws  and  manners. 
When  speaking  of  the  united  republican  States,  I  hazarded  no 
conjectures  upon  the  permanence  of  republican  forms  in  the 
New  World,  and  when  making  frequent  allusion  to  the  com- 
mercial activity  which  reigns  in  the  Union,  I  was  unable  to  in- 
quire into  the  future  condition  of  the  Americans  as  a  com- 
mercial people. 

These  topics  are  collaterally  connected  with  my  subject 
without  forming  a  part  of  it;  they  are  American  without 
being  democratic;  and  to  portray  democracy  has  been  my 
principal  aim.  It  was  therefore  necessary  to  postpone  these 
questions,  which  I  now  take  up  as  the  proper  termination  of 
my  work.  • 

Vol.  1.-22  337 


1    J 

'i 


X 


Vi\, 


!t    -lA  ^ 


(i 


338 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


Vi 


The  territory  now  occupied  or  claimed  by  the  American 
Union  spreads  from  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic  to  those  of  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  On  the  east  and  west  its  limits  are  those  of 
the  continent  itself.  On  the  south  it  advances  nearly  to  the 
tropic,  and  it  extends  upwards  to  the  icy  regions  of  the  North. 
The  human  beings  who  are  scattered  over  this  space  do  not 
form,  as  in  Europe,  so  many  branches  of  the  same  stock.  Three 
races,  naturally  distinct,  and,  I  might  almost  say,  hostile  to 
each  other,  are  discoverable  amongst  them  at  the  first  glance. 
Almost  insurmountable  barriers  had  been  raised  between  them 
by  education  and  by  law,  as  well  as  by  their  origin  and  out- 
ward characteristics;  but  fortune  has  brought  them  together 
on  the  same  soil,  where,  although  they  are  mixed,  they  do  not 
amalgamate,  and  each  race  fulfils  its  destiny  apart. 

Amongst  these  widely  differing  families  of  men,  the  first 
which  attracts  attention,  the  superior  in  intelligence,  in  power 
and  in  enjoyment,  is  the  white  or  European,  the  man  pre-emi- 
nent; and  in  subordinate  grades,  the  negro  and  the  Indian. 
These  two  unhappy  races  have  nothing  in  common;  neither 
birth,  nor  features,  nor  language,  nor  habits.  Their  only  re- 
semblance lies  in  their  misfortunes.  Both  of  them  occupy  an 
inferior  rank  in  the  country  they  inhabit;  both  suffer  from 
tyranny;  and  if  their  wrongs  are  not  the  same,  they  origi- 
nate, at  any  rate,  with  the  same  authors. 

If  we  reasoned  from  what  passes  in  the  world,  we  should 
almost  say  that  the  European  is  to  the  other  races  of  man- 
kind, what  man  is  to  the  lower  animals ; — he  makes  them  sub- 
servient to  his  use;  and  when  he  cannot  subdue,  he  destroys 
them.  Oppression  has,  at  one  stroke,  deprived  the  descendants 
of  the  Africans  of  almost  all  the  privileges  of  humanity.  The 
negro  of  the  United  States  has  lost  all  remembrance  of  his 
country;  the  language  which  his  forefathers  spoke  is  never 
heard  around  him ;  he  abjured  their  religion  and  forgot  their 
customs  when  he  ceased  to  belong  to  Africa,  without  acquiring 
any  claim  to  European  privileges.  But  he  remains  half  way 
between  the  two  communities;  sold  by  the  one,  repulsed  by 
the  other ;  finding  not  a  spot  in  the  universe  to  call  by  the  name 
of  country,  except  the  faint  image  of  a  home  which  the  shelter 
of  his  master's  roof  affords. 

The  negro  has  no  family ;  woman  is  merely  the  temporary 
companion  of  his  pleasures,  and  his  children  are  upon  an  equal- 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


339 


ity  with  himself  from  the  moment  of  their  birth.  Am  I  to  call 
it  a  proof  of  God's  mercy  or  a  visitation  of  his  wrath,  that  man 
in  certain  states  appears  to  be  insensible  to  his  extreme 
wretchedness,  and  almost  affects,  with  a  depraved  taste,  the 
cause  of  his  misfortunes?  The  negro,  who  is  plunged  in  this 
abyss  of  evils,  scarcely  feels  his  own  calamitous  situation.  Vio- 
lence made  him  a  slave,  and  the  habit  of  servitude  gives  him 
the  thoughts  and  desires  of  a  slave;  he  admires  his  tyrants 
more  than  he  hates  them,  and  finds  his  joy  and  his  pride  in  the 
servile  imitation  of  those  who  oppress  him :  his  understanding 
is  degraded  to  the  level  of  his  soul. 

The  negro  enters  upon  slavery  as  soon  as  he  is  born :  nay, 
he  may  have  been  purchased  in  the  womb,  and  have  begun  his 
slavery  before  he  began  his  existence.  Equally  devoid  of  wants 
and  of  enjoyment,  and  useless  to  himself,  he  learns,  with  his 
first  notions  of  existence,  that  he  is  the  property  of  another, 
who  has  an  interest  in  preserving  his  life,  and  that  the  care  of  it 
does  not  devolve  upon  himself ;  even  the  power  of  thought  ap- 
pears to  him  a  useless  gift  of  Providence,  and  he  quietly  en- 
joys the  privileges  of  his  debasement.  If  he  becomes  free,  in- 
dependence is  often  felt  by  him  to  be  a  heavier  burden  than 
slavery;  for  having  learned,  in  the  course  of  his  life,  to  sub- 
mit to  everything  except  reason,  he  is  too  much  unacquainted 
with  her  dictates  to  obey  them.  A  thousand  new  desires  beset 
him,  and  he  is  destitute  of  the  knowledge  and  energy  necessary 
to  resist  them:  these  are  masters  which  it  is  necessary  to 
contend  with,  and  he  has  learnt  only  to  submit  and  obey. 
In  short,  he  sinks  to  such  a  depth  of  wretchedness,  that  while 
servitude  brutalizes,  liberty  destroys  him. 

Oppression  has  been  no  less  fatal  to  the  Indian  than  to  the 
negro  race,  but  its  effects  are  different.  Before  the  arrival  of 
white  men  in  the  New  World,  the  inhabitants  of  North 
America  lived  quietly  in  their  woods,  enduring  the  vicissitudes 
and  practising  the  virtues  and  vices  common  to  savage  nations. 
The  Europeans,  having  dispersed  the  Indian  tribes  and  driven 
them  into  the  deserts,  condemned  them  to  a  wandering  life  full 
of  inexpressible  sufferings. 

Savage  nations  are  only  controlled  by  opinion  and  by  cus- 
tom. When  the  North  American  Indians  had  lost  the  senti- 
ment of  attachment  to  their  country ;  when  their  families  were 
dispersed,  their  traditions  obscured,  and  the  chain  of  their 


II    1 


t40 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


I 


Ji'i 


recollections  broken;  when  all  their  habits  were  changed,  and 
their  wants  increased  beyond  measure,  European  tyranny  ren- 
dered them  more  disorderly  and  less  civilized  than  they  were 
before.  The  moral  and  physical  condition  of  these  tribes  con- 
tinually grew  worse,  and  they  became  more  barbarous  as  they 
became  more  wretched.  Nevertheless,  the  Europeans  have 
not  been  able  to  metamorphose  the  character  of  the  Indians; 
and  though  they  have  had  power  to  destroy  them,  they  have 
never  been  able  to  make  them  submit  to  the  rules  of  civilized 
society. 

The  lot  of  the  negro  is  placed  on  the  extreme  limit  of  servi- 
tude, while  that  of  the  Indian  lies  on  the  uttermost  verge  of 
liberty;  and  slavery  does  not  produce  more  fatal  effects  upon 
the  first,  than  independence  upon  the  second.  The  negro  has 
lost  all  property  in  his  own  person,  and  he  cannot  dispose  of  his 
existence  without  committing  a  sort  of  fraud :  but  the  savage 
is  his  own  master  as  soon  as  he  is  able  to  act ;  parental  author- 
ity is  scarcely  known  to  him ;  he  has  never  bent  his  will  to  that 
of  any  of  his  kind,  nor  learned  the  difference  between  voluntary 
obedience  and  a  shameful  subjection;  and  the  very  name  of 
law  is  unknown  to  him.  To  be  free,  with  him,  signifies  to  es- 
cape from  all  the  shackles  of  society.  As  he  delights  in  this 
barbarous  independence,  and  would  rather  perish  than  spcrifice 
the  least  part  of  it,  civilization  has  little  power  over  him. 

The  negro  makes  a  thousand  fruitless  efforts  to  insinuate 
himself  amongst  men  who  repulse  him;  he  conforms  to  the 
tastes  of  his  oppressors,  adopts  their  opinions,  and  hopes  by 
imitating  them  to  form  a  part  of  their  community.  Having 
been  told  from  infancy  that  his  race  is  naturally  inferior  to 
that  of  the  whites,  he  assents  to  the  proposition  and  is  ashamed 
of  his  own  nature.  In  each  of  his  features  he  discovers  a  trace 
of  slavery,  and,  if  it  were  in  his  power,  he  would  willingly  rid 
himself  of  everything  that  makes  him  what  he  is. 

The  Indian,  on  the  contrary,  has  his  imagination  inflated 
with  the  pretended  nobility  of  his  origin,  and  lives  and  dies  in 
the  midst  of  these  dreams  of  pride.  Far  from  desiring  to  con- 
form his  habits  to  ours,  he  loves  his  savage  life  as  the  distin- 
guishing mark  of  his  race,  and  he  repels  every  advance  to 
civilization,  less  perhaps  from  the  hatred  which  he  entertains 
for  it,  than  from  a  dread  of  resembling  the  Europeans.o    While 


a  The  native  of  North  America  retains 
bis  opinions  and  the  most  insignificant 


of  his  habits  with  a  deirree  of  tenacity 
which  has  no  parallel  in  history.    For 


KS««%mM 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


341 


nd 
en- 
tire 
on- 


he  has  nothing  to  oppose  to  our  perfection  in  the  arts  but  the 
resources  of  the  desert,  to  our  tactics  nothing  but  undisci- 
pUned  courage ;  whilst  our  well-digested  plans  are  met  by  the 
spontaneous  instincts  of  savage  life,  who  can  wonder  if  he  fails 
in  this  unequal  contest  ? 

The  negro,  who  earnestly  desires  to  mingle  his  race  with 
that  of  the  European,  cannot  effect  it;  while  the  Indian,  who 
might  succeed  to  a  certain  extent,  disdains  to  make  the  attempt. 
The  servility  of  the  one  dooms  him  to  slavery,  the  pride  of  the 
other  to  death. 

I  remember  that  while  I  was  travelling  through  the  forests 
which  still  cover  the  State  of  Alabama,  I  arrived  one  day  at  the 
log  house  of  a  pioneer.  I  did  not  wish  to  penetrate  into  the 
dwelling  of  the  American,  but  retired  to  rest  myself  for  a  while 
on  the  margin  of  a  spring,  which  was  not  far  off,  in  the  woods. 
While  I  was  in  this  place  (which  was  in  the  neighborhood  of 
the  Creek  territory),  an  Indian  woman  appeared,  followed  by 
a  negress,  and  holding  by  the  hand  a  little  white  girl  of  five  or 
six  years  old,  whom  1  took  to  be  the  daughter  of  the  pioneer. 
A  sort  of  barbarous  luxury  set  off  the  costume  of  the  Indian ; 
rings  of  metal  were  hanging  from  her  nostrils  and  ears;  her 
hair,  which  was  adorned  with  glass  beads,  fell  loosely  upon  her 
shoulders;  and  I  saw  that  she  was  not  married,  for  she  still 
wore  that  necklace  of  shells  which  the  bride  always  deposits  on 
the  nuptial  couch.  The  negress  was  clad  in  squalid  European 
garments.  They  all  three  came  and  seated  themselves  upon 
the  banks  of  the  fountain ;  and  the  young  Indian,  taking  the 
child  in  her  arms,  lavished  upon  her  such  fond  caresses  as 


Li 


more  than  two  hundred  years  the  wan- 
dering tribes  of  North  America  have 
had  daily  intercourse  with  the  whites, 
and  they  have  never  derived  from  them 
either  a  custom  or  an  idea.  Yet  the 
Europeans  have  exercised  a  powerful  in- 
fluence over  the  savages  :  they  have 
made  them  more  licentious,  but  not 
more  European.  In  the  summer  of  1831 
I  happened  to  be  beyond  Lake  Michi- 
gan, at  a  place  called  Green  Bay,  which 
serves  as  the  extreme  frontier  between 
the  United  States  and  the  Indians  on 
the  north-western  side.  Here  I  became 
acquainted  with  an  American  officer. 
Major  H.,  who,  after  talking  to  me  at 
length  on  the  inflexibility  of  the  Indian 
character,  related  the  following  fact: — 
"  I  formerly  knew  a  young  Indian," 
said  he,  "  who  had  been  educated  at  a 
college  in  New  England,  where  he  had 
greatly  distinguished  himself,  and  had 
acquired  the  external  appearance  of  a 


member  of  civilized  society.  When  the 
war  broke  out  between  ourselves  and 
the  English  in  1810,  I  saw  this  young 
nt-in  again  ;  he  was  serving  in  our  army, 
!"t  the  head  of  the  warriors  of  his  tribe, 
('  •  the  Indians  were  admitted  amongst 
'it  -anks  of  the  Americans,  upon  condi- 
tio; >  that  they  would  abstain  from  their 
hor;-ibIe  custom  of  scalping  their  vic- 
tims. On  the  evening  of  the  battle  of 
.  .  .,  C.  came  and  sat  himself  down 
by  the  fire  of  our  bivouac.  J  asked 
htm  what  had  been  his  fortune  that  day  : 
he  related  his  exploits;  and  growing 
warm  and  animated  by  the  recollection 
of  them,  he  concluded  by  suddenly  open- 
ing the  breast  of  his  coat,  saying,  '  You 
must  not  betray  me— see  here  !  '  And  I 
actually  beheld,"  said  the  Major,  "  be- 
tween his  body  and  his  shirt,  the  skin 
and  hair  of  an  English  head,  still  drip- 
ping with  gore." 


342 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


mothers  give;  while  the  negress  endeavored  by  various  little 
artifices  to  attract  the  attention  of  the  young  Creole. 

The  child  displayed  in  her  slightest  gestures  a  consciousness 
of  superiority  which  formed  a  strange  contrast  with  her  in- 
fantine weakness ;  as  if  she  received  the  attentions  of  her  com- 
panions with  a  sort  of  condescension.  The  negress  was  seated 
on  the  ground  before  her  mistress,  watching  her  smallest  de- 
sires, and  apparently  divided  between  strong  affection  for  the 
child  and  servile  fear ;  whilst  the  savage  displayed,  in  the  midst 
of  her  tenderness,  an  air  of  freedom  and  of  pride  which  was 
almost  ferocious.  I  had  approached  the  group,  and  I  con- 
templated them  in  silence ;  but  my  curiosity  was  probaoly  dis- 
pleasing to  the  Indian  woman,  for  she  suddenly  rose,  pushed 
the  child  roughly  from  her,  and  giving  me  an  angry  look 
plunged  into  the  thicket.  I  had  often  chanced  to  see  individu- 
als met  together  in  the  same  place,  who  belonged  to  the  three 
races  of  men  which  people  North  America.  I  had  perceived 
from  many  different  results  the  preponderance  of  the  whites. 
But  in  the  picture  which  I  have  just  been  describing  there  was 
something  peculiarly  touching ;  a  bond  of  affection  here  united 
the  oppressors  with  the  oppressed,  and  the  effort  of  nature  to 
bring  them  together  rendered  still  more  striking  the  immense 
distance  placed  between  them  by  prejudice  and  by  law. 

The  Present  and  Probable  Future  Condition  of  the 
Indian  Tribes  Which  Inhabit  the  Territory  Pos- 
sessed BY  the  Union 

Gradual  disappearance  of  the  native  tribes — Manner  in  which  it  takes 
place — Miseries  accompanying  the  forced  migrations  of  the  Indians 
— The  ravages  of  North  America  had  only  two  ways  of  escaping 
destruction;  war  or  civilization — They  are  no  longer  able  to  make 
war — Reasons  why  they  refused  to  become  civilized  when  it  was  in 
their  power,  and  why  they  cannot  become  so  now  that  they  desire  it 
— Instance  of  the  Creeks  and  Cherokees — Policy  of  the  particular 
States  towards  these  Indians — Policy  of  the  Federal  Government. 

None  of  the  Indian  tribes  which  formerly  inhabited  the  ter- 
ritory of  New  England — the  Naragansetts,  the  Mohicans,  the 
Pecots — have  any  existence  but  in  the  recollection  of  man. 
The  Lenapes,  who  received  William  Penn,  a  hundred  and  fifty 
years  ago,  upon  the  banks  of  the  Delaware,  have  disappeared ; 
and  I  myself  met  with  the  last  of  the  Iroquois,  who  were  beg- 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


343 


ging  alms.  The  nations  I  have  mentioned  formerly  covered 
the  cotmtry  to  the  sea-coast ;  but  a  traveller  at  the  present  day 
must  penetrate  more  than  a  hundred  leagues  into  the  interior 
of  the  continent  to  find  an  Indian.  Not  only  have  these  wild 
tribes  receded,  but  they  are  destroyed ;  b  and  as  they  give  way 
or  perish,  an  immense  and  increasing  people  fills  their  place. 
There  is  no  instance  upon  record  of  so  prodigious  a  growth, 
or  so  rapid  a  destruction:  the  manner  in  which  the  latter 
change  takes  place  is  not  difficult  to  describe. 

When  the  Indians  were  the  sole  inhabitants  of  the  wilds 
from  whence  they  have  since  been  expelled,  their  wants  were 
few.  Their  arms  were  of  their  own  manufacture,  their  only 
drink  was  the  water  of  the  brook,  and  their  clothes  consisted 
of  the  skins  of  animals,  whose  flesh  furnished  them  with  food. 

The  Europeans  introduced  amongst  the  savages  of  North 
America  fire-arms,  ardent  spirits,  and  iron:  they  taught  them 
to  exchange  for  manufactured  stuffs,  the  rough  garments 
which  had  previously  satisfied  their  untutored  simplicity. 
Having  acquired  new  tastes,  without  the  arts  by  which  they 
could  be  gratified,  the  Indians  were  obliged  to  have  recourse 
to  the  workmanship  of  the  whites;  but  in  return  for  their 
productions  the  savage  had  nothing  to  offer  except  the  rich 
furs  which  still  abounded  in  his  woods.  Hence  the  chase  be- 
came necessary,  not  merely  to  provide  for  his  subsistence,  but 
in  order  to  procure  the  only  objects  of  barter  which  he  could 
furnish  to  Europe.^  Whilst  the  wants  of  the  natives  were 
thus  increasing,  their  resources  continued  to  diminish. 


b  In  the  thirteen  original  States  there 
are  only  ^1273  Indians  remaining.  (See 
Legislative  Documents,  20th  Congress, 
No.  117,  p.  go.)  (The  decrease  in  now 
far  greater,  and  is  verging  on  extinc- 
tion.   See  page  360  of  this  volume.] 

c  Messrs.  Clarice  and  Cass,  in  their 
Report  to  Congress  on  February  4, 
18^,  p.  33,  expressed  themselves  thus: — 

,  "  The  time  wnen  the  Indians  generally 
could  supply  themselves  with  food  and 

[clothing,  without  any  of  the  articles  of 
civilized  life,  has  long  since  passed  away. 

[The  more  remote  tribes,  beyond  the 
Mississippi,  who  live  where  immense 
herds  of  bulTalo  are  yet  to  be  found  and 
who  follow  those  animals  in  their  peri- 
odical migrations,  could  more  easily 
than  any  others  recur  to  the  habits  of 
their  ancestors,  and  live  without  the 
white  man  or  any  of  his  manufactures. 
But  the  buffalo  is  constantly  receding. 
The  smaller  animals,  the  bear,  the  deer, 
the  beaver,  the  otter,  the  muskrat,  etc.. 
principally  minister  to  the  comfort  and 


support  of  the  Indians  ;  and  these  can- 
not be  taken  without  guns,  ammunition, 
and  traps.  Among  the  Northwestern 
Indians  particularly,  the  labor  of  sup- 

E lying  a  family  with  food  is  excessive. 
>ay  after  day  is  spent  by_  the  hunter 
without  success,  and  during  this  in- 
terval his  family  must  subsist  upon  bark 
or  roots,  or  perish.  Want  and  misery 
are  around  them  and  among  them. 
Many  die  every  winter  from  actual 
starvation." 

The  Indians  will  not  live  as  Europeans 
live,  and  yet  they  can  neither  subsist 
without  them,  nor  exactly  after  the 
fashion  of  their  fathers.  This  is  demon- 
strated by  a  fact  which  I  likewise  give 
upon  official  authority.  Some  Indians 
of  a  tribe  on  the  banks  of  Lake  Superior 
had  killed  a  European  ;  the  American 
government  interdicted  all  traffic  with 
the  tribe  to  which  the  guilty  parties  be- 
lonfied,  until  they  were  delivered  up  to 
justice.  This  measure  had  the  desired 
effect. 


I 


4V 


344 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


From  the  moment  when  a  European  settlement  is  formed 
in  the  neighborhood  of  the  territory  occupied  by  the  Indians, 
the  beasts  of  chase  take  the  alarm.rf  Thousands  of  savages, 
wandering  in  the  forests  and  destitute  of  any  fixed  dwelling, 
did  not  disturb  them ;  but  as  soon  as  the  continuous  sounds  of 
European  labor  are  heard  in  their  neighborhood,  they  begin 
to  flee  away,  and  retire  to  the  West,  where  their  instinct  teaches 
them  that  they  will  find  deserts  of  immeasurable  extent.  "  The 
buffalo  is  constantly  receding,"  say  Messrs.  Clarke  and  Cass 
in  their  Report  of  the  year  1829;  "  a  few  years  since  they  ap- 
proached the  base  of  the  Alleghany ;  and  a  few  years  hence  they 
may  even  be  rare  upon  the  immense  plains  which  extend  to  the 
base  of  the  Rocky  Mountains."  I  have  been  assured  that  this 
effect  of  the  approach  of  the  whites  is  often  felt  at  two  hun- 
dred leagues'  distance  from  their  frontier.  Their  influence  is 
thus  exerted  over  tribes  whose  name  is  unknown  to  them ;  and 
who  suffer  the  evils  of  usurpation  long  before  they  are  ac- 
quainted with  the  authors  of  their  distress.^ 

Bold  adventurers  soon  penetrate  into  the  country  the  Indians 
have  deserted,  and  when  they  have  advanced  about  fifteen  or 
twenty  leagues  from  the  extreme  frontiers  of  the  whites,  they 
begin  to  build  habitations  for  civilized  beings  in  the  midst  of 
the  wilderness.  This  is  done  without  difficulty,  as  the  terri- 
tory of  a  hunting-nation  is  ill-defined ;  it  is  the  common  prop- 
erty of  the  tribe,  and  belongs  to  no  one  in  particular,  so  that 
individual  interests  are  not  concerned  in  the  protection  of  any 
part  of  it. 

A  few  European  families,  settled  in  different  situations  at 
a  considerable  distance  from  each  other,  soon  drive  away  the 
wild  animals  which  remain  between  their  places  of  abode. 
The  Indians,  who  had  previously  lived  in  a  sort  of  abundance, 
then  find  it  difficult  to  subsist,  and  still  more  difficult  to  pro- 
cure the  articles  of  barter  which  they  stand  in  need  of. 

To  drive  away  their  game  is  to  deprive  them  of  the  means 

d "Five  years  ago,"  (says  Vplney  in 


d "  Five  years  ago,"  (says  voiney  in 
his  "Tableau  des  Etats-Unis,"  p.  370) 
"  in  going  from  Vincennes  to  Kastcas- 
Icia,  a  territory  which  now  forms  part 
of  the  State  of  Illinois,  but  which  at  the 
time  I  mention  was  completely  wild 
(1797).  you  could  not  cross  a  prairie 
without  seeinij  herds  of  from  four  to  five 
hundred  buffaloes.  There  are  now  none 
remaining  ;  they  swam  across  the  Mis- 
sissippi to  escape  from  the  hunters,  ond 
more  particularly  from  the  bells  of  the 
American  cows. 


«The  truth  of  what  I  here  advance 
may  be  easily  proved  by  consulting  the 
tabular  statement  of  Indian  tribes  in- 
habiting; the  United  States  and  their 
territories.  (Legislative  Documents, 
30th  Congress.  No.  117,  pp.  oo-ioc.)  It 
is  there  shown  ^  that  the  tribes  in  the 
centre  of  America  are  rapidly  decreas- 
ing, although  the  Europeans  are  still  at 
•  considerable  distance  from  them. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


345 


of  existence,  as  effectually  as  if  the  fields  of  our  agriculturists 
were  stricken  with  barrenness ;  and  they  are  reduced,  like  fam- 
ished wolves,  to  prowl  through  the  forsaken  woods  in  quest  of 
prey.  Their  instinctive  love  of  their  country  attaches  them  to 
the  soil  which  gave  them  birth,'  even  after  it  has  ceased  to 
yield  anything  but  misery  and  death.  At  length  they  are  com- 
pelled to  acquiesce,  and  to  depart :  they  follow  the  traces  of  the 
elk,  the  buffalo,  and  the  beaver,  and  are  guided  by  these  wild 
animals  in  the  choice  of  their  future  country.  Properly  speak- 
ing, therefore,  it  is  not  the  Europeans  who  drive  away  the  na- 
tive inhabitants  of  America;  it  is  famine  which  compels  them 
to  recede;  a  happy  distinction  which  had  escaped  the  casuists 
of  former  times,  and  for  which  we  are  indebted  to  modern  dis- 
covery I 

It  is  impossible  to  conceive  the  extent  of  the  sufferings  which 
attend  these  forced  emigrations.  They  are  undertaken  by  a 
people  already  exhausted  and  reduced;  and  the  countries  to 
which  the  newcomers  betake  themselves  are  inhabited  by 
other  tribes  which  receive  them  with  jealous  hostility.  Hun- 
ger is  in  the  rear ;  war  awaits  them,  and  misery  besets  them  on 
all  sides.  In  the  hope  of  escaping  from  sucli  a  host  of  enemies, 
they  separate,  and  each  individual  endeavors  to  procure  the 
means  of  supporting  his  existence  in  solitude  and  secrecy,  liv- 
ing in  the  immensity  of  the  desert  like  an  outcast  in  civilized 
society.  The  social  tie,  which  distress  had  long  since  weak- 
ened, is  then  dissolved;  they  have  lost  their  country,  and  their 
people  soon  desert  them:  their  very  families  are  obliterated; 
the  names  they  bore  in  common  are  forgotten,  their  language 
perishes,  and  all  traces  of  their  origin  disappear.  Their  nation 
has  ceased  to  exist,  except  in  the  recollection  of  the  antiquaries 
of  America  and  a  few  of  the  learned  of  Europe. 

I  should  be  sorry  to  have  my  reader  suppose  that  I  am  color- 
ing the  picture  too  highly ;  I  saw  with  my  own  eyes  several  of 
the  cases  of  misery  which  I  have  been  describing ;  and  I  was 
the  witness  of  sufferings  which  I  have  not  the  power  to  por- 
tray. 


f  "The  Indians,"  say  Messrs.  Clarke 
and  Cass  in  their  Report  to  ConRress, 
p.  IS,  "  are  attached  to  their  country  by 
the  same  feelings  which  bind  us  to 
ours  ;  and,  besides,  there  are  certain 
Buperstitious  notions  connected  with 
the  alienation  of  what  the  Great  Spirit 
gave  to  their  ancestors,  which  operate 


strongly  upon  the  tribes  who  have  made 
few  or  no  cessions,  but  which  are  grad- 
ually weakened  as  our  intercourse  with 
them  is  extended.  '  We  will  not  sell 
the  spot  which  contains  the  bones  of 
our  fathers,'  is  almost  always  the  first 
answer  to  a  proposition  for  a  sale." 


.1 


I 


l; 


346 


DE  TOCOUEVILLE 


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At  the  end  of  the  year  1831,  whilst  I  was  on  the  left  bank  of 
the  Mississippi  at  a  place  named  by  Europeans,  Memphis,  there 
arrived  a  numerous  band  of  Choctaws  (or  Chactas,  as  they  are 
called  by  the  French  in  Louisiana).  These  savages  had  left 
their  country,  and  were  endeavoring  to  gain  the  right  bank  of 
the  Mississippi,  where  they  hoped  to  find  an  asylum  which  had 
been  promised  them  by  the  American  government.  It  was 
then  the  middle  of  winter,  and  the  cold  was  unusually  severe ; 
the  snow  had  frozen  l:ard  upon  the  ground,  and  the  river  was 
drifting  huge  masses  of  ice.  The  Indians  had  their  families 
with  them;  and  they  brought  in  their  train  the  wounded  and 
sick,  with  children  newly  born,  and  old  men  upon  the  verge  of 
death.  They  possessed  neither  tents  nor  wagons,  but  only 
their  arms  and  some  provisions.  I  saw  them  embark  to  pass 
the  mighty  river,  and  never  will  that  solemn  spectacle  fade 
from  my  remembrance.  No  cry,  no  sob  was  heard  amongst 
the  assembled  crowd;  all  were  silent.  Their  calamities  were 
of  ancient  date,  and  they  knew  them  to  be  irremediable.  The 
Indians  had  all  stepped  into  the  bark  which  was  to  carry  them 
across,  but  their  dogs  remained  upon  the  bank.  As  soon  as 
these  animals  perceived  that  their  masters  were  finally  leaving 
the  shore,  they  set  up  a  dismal  howl,  and,  plunging  all  together 
into  the  icy  waters  of  the  Mississippi,  they  swam  after  the  boat. 

The  ejectment  of  the  Indians  very  often  takes  place  at  the 
present  day,  in  a  regular,  and,  as  it  were,  a  legal  manner.  When 
the  European  population  begins  to  approach  the  limit  of  the 
desert  inhabited  by  a  savage  tribe,  the  government  of  the 
United  States  usually  dispatches  envoys  to  them,  who  assemble 
the  Indians  in  a  large  plain,  and  having  first  eaten  and  drunk 
with  them,  accost  them  in  the  following  manner :  "  What  have 
you  to  do  in  the  land  of  your  fathers  ?  Before  long,  you  must 
dig  up  their  bones  in  order  to  live.  In  what  respect  is  the  coun- 
try you  inhabit  better  than  another?  Are  there  no  woods, 
marshes,  or  prairies,  except  where  you  dwell?  And  can  you 
live  nowhere  but  under  your  own  sun?  Beyond  those  moun- 
tains which  you  see  at  the  horizon,  beyond  the  lake  which 
bounds  your  territory  on  the  west,  there  lie  vast  countries 
where  beasts  of  chase  are  found  in  great  abundance ;  sell  your 
lands  to  us,  and  go  to  live  happily  in  those  solitudes."  After 
holding  this  language,  they  spread  before  the  eyes  of  the  Ind- 
ians firearms,  woollen  garments,  kegs  of  brandy,  glass  neck- 


nnmm 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


347 


laces,  bracelets  of  tinsel,  earrings,  and  looking-glasses.^  If, 
when  they  have  beheld  all  these  riches,  they  still  hesitate,  it  is 
insinuated  that  they  have  not  the  means  of  refusing  their  re- 
quired consent,  and  that  the  government  itself  will  not  long 
have  the  power  of  protecting  them  in  their  rights.  What  are 
they  to  do?  Half  convinced,  and  half  compelled,  they  go  to 
inhabit  new  deserts,  where  the  importunate  whites  will  not  let 
them  remain  ten  years  in  tranquillity.  In  this  manner  do  the 
Americans  obtain,  at  a  very  low  price,  whole  provinces,  which 
the  richest  sovereigns  of  Europe  could  not  purchase.* 

These  are  great  evils ;  and  it  must  be  added  that  they  appear 
to  me  to  be  irremediable.  I  believe  that  the  Indian  nations  of 
North  America  are  doomed  to  perish;  and  that  whenever  the 
Europeans  shall  be  established  on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean,  that  race  of  men  will  be  no  more.»  The  Indians  had 
only  the  two  alternatives  of  war  or  civilization ;  in  other  words, 
they  must  either  have  destroyed  the  Europeans  or  become  their 
equals. 


g  See,  in  the  Legislative  Documents 
of  Congress  (Doc.  117),  the  narrative  of 
what  takes  place  on  these  occasions. 
This  curious  passage  is  from  the  above- 
mentioned  report,  made  to  Congress  by 
Messrs.  Clarke  and  Cass  in  February, 
1829.  Mr.  Cass  is  now  the  Secretary  of 
War. 

"  The  Indians,"  says  the  report, 
"  reach  the  treaty-ground  poor  and  al- 
most naked.  Large  quantities  of  goods 
are  taken  there  by  the  traders,  and  are 
seen  and  examined  by  the  Indians.  The 
women  and  children  become  importu- 
nate to  have  their  wants  supplied,  and 
their  influence  is  soon  exerted  to  induce 
a  sale.  Their  improvidence  is  habitual 
and  unconquerable.  The  gratification 
of  his  immediate  wants  and  desires  is 
the  ruling  passion  of  an  Indian.  The 
expectation  of  future  advantages  seldom 
produces  much  effect.  The  experience 
of  the  past  is  lost,  and  the  prospects 
of  the  future  disregarded.  It  would  be 
utterly  hopeless  to  demand  a  cession 
of  land,  unless  the  means  were  at  hand 
of  gratifying  their  immediate  wants; 
and  when  their  condition  and  circum- 
stances are  fairly  considered,  it  ought 
not_  to  surprise  us  that  they  are  so 
anxious  to  relieve  themselves." 

h  On  May  jg,  1830,  Mr.  Edward  Ev- 
erett affirmed  before  the  House  of 
Representatives,  that  the  Americans 
haa  already  acquired  by  treaty,  to  the 
east  and  west  of  the  Mississippi,  230,- 
000,000  of  acres.  In  1808  the  Osages 
gave  up  48,000,000  acres  for  an  annual 
payment  of  $1,000.  In  i8i8  the  Quapaws 
yielded  up  29,000,000  acres  for  $4,000. 
They  reserved  for  themselves  a  terri- 
tory of  1,000,000  acres  for  a  hunting- 
pround.  A  solemn  oath  was  taken  that 
It  should  be  respected  :  but  before  long 
it  was  invaded  like  the  rest. 


Mr.  Bell,  in  his  Report  of  the  Com- 
mittee on  Indian  Affairs,  February  24, 
1830,  has  these  words : — "  To  pay  an 
Indian  tribe  what  their  ancient  hunting- 
grounds  are  worth  to  them,  after  the 
game  is  fled  or  destroyed,  as  a  mode  of 
appropriating  wild  lands  claimed  by 
Indians,  has  been  found  more  conven- 
ient, and  certainly  it  is  more  agreeabi: 
to  the  forms  of  justice,  as  well  as  more 
merciful,  than  to  assert  the  possession 
of  them  by  the  sword.  Thus  the  prac- 
tice of  buying  Indian  titles  is  but  the 
substitute  which  humanity  and  ex- 
pediency have  imposed,  in  place  of  the 
sword,  in  arriving  at  the  actual  en- 
joyment of  property  claimed  by  the 
right  of  discoverjr,  and  sanctioned  by 
the  natural  superiority  allowed  to  the 
claims  of  civilized  communities  over 
those  of  savage  tribes.  Up  to  the  pres- 
ent time  so  invariable  has  been  the  oper- 
ation of  certain  causes,  first  in  dimin- 
ishing the  value  of  forest  lands  to  the 
Indians,  and  secondly  in  disposing 
them  to  sell  readily,  that  the  plan  of 
buying  their  right  of  occupancy  has 
never  threatened  to  retard,  in  any  per- 
ceptible degree,  the  prosperity  of  any 
of  the  States."  (Legislative  Docu- 
ments, 2ist  Congress,  J^o.  227,  p.  6.) 

«  This  seems,  indeed,  to  be  the  opinion 
nf  almost  all  American  statesmen. 
"  Judging  of  the  future  by  the  past." 
says  Mr.  Cass,  "  we  cannot  err  m  an- 
ticipating a  progressive  diminution  of 
their  numbers,  and  their  eventual  ex- 
tinction, unless  our  border  should  be- 
come stationary,  and  they  be  removed 
beyond  it,  or  unless  some  radical  change 
should  take  place  in  the  principles  of 
our  intercourse  with  them,  which  it  is 
easier  to  hope  for  than  to  expect." 


i   * 


v\ 


348 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


:i 


At  the  first  settlement  of  the  colonies  they  might  have  found 
it  possible,  by  uniting  their  forces,  to  deliver  themselves  from 
the  small  bodies  of  strangers  who  landed  on  their  continent.;' 
They  several  times  attempted  to  do  it,  and  were  on  the  point  of 
succeeding;  but  the  disproportion  of  their  resources,  at  the 
present  day,  when  compared  with  those  of  the  whites,  is  too 
great  to  allow  such  an  enterprise  to  be  thought  of.  Neverthe- 
less, there  do  arise  from  time  to  time  among  the  Indians  men 
of  penetration,  who  foresee  the  final  destiny  which  awaits  the 
native  population,  and  who  exert  themselves  to  unite  all  the 
tribes  in  common  hostility  to  the  Europeans ;  but  their  eflorts 
are  unavailing.  Those  tribes  which  are  in  the  neighborhood 
of  the  whites,  are  too  much  weakened  to  offer  an  effectual  re- 
sistance; whilst  the  others,  giving  way  to  that  childish  care- 
lessness of  the  morrow  which  characterizes  savage  life,  wait  for 
the  near  approach  of  danger  before  they  prepare  to  meet  it; 
some  are  unable,  the  others  are  unwilling,  to  exert  themselves. 

It  is  easy  to  foresee  that  the  Indians  will  never  conform  to 
civilization ;  or  that  it  will  be  too  late,  whenever  they  may  be 
inclined  to  make  the  experiment. 

Civilization  is  the  result  of  a  long  social  process  which  takes 
place  in  the  same  spot,  and  is  handed  down  from  one  genera- 
tion to  another,  each  one  profiting  by  the  experience  of  the 
last.  Of  all  nations,  those  submit  to  civilization  with  the  most 
difficulty  which  habitually  live  by  the  chase.  Pastoral  tribes, 
indeed,  often  change  their  place  of  abode ; '  but  they  follow  a 
regular  order  in  their  migrations,  and  often  return  again  to 
their  oM  stations,  whilst  the  dwelling  of  the  hunter  varies  with 
that  of  the  animals  he  pursues. 

Several  attempts  have  been  made  to  diffuse  knowledge 
amongst  the  Indians,  without  controlling  their  wandering  pro- 
pensities; by  the  Jesuits  in  Canada,  and  by  the  Puritans  in 
New  England ;  k  but  none  of  these  endeavors  were  crowned 
by  any  lasting  success.  Civilization  began  in  the  cabin,  but  it 
soon  retired  to  expire  in  the  woods.  The  great  error  of  these 
legislators  of  the  Indians  was  their  not  understanding  that,  in 
order  to  succeed  in  civilizing  a  people,  it  is  first  necessary  to 


i  Amongrst  other  warlike  enterprises, 
there  was  one  of  the  Wampanaogs,  and 
other  confederate  tribes,  under  Metacom 
in  1675,  against  the  colonists  of  New 
England  ;  the  English  were  also  en- 
gaged in  war  in  Virginia  in  162a. 


*  See  the  "Histoire  de  la  Nouvelle 
France,"  by  Charlev  k,  and  the  work 
entitled  "  Lettres  <di     ntes." 


/ 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


349 


fix  it ;  which  cannot  be  done  without  inducing  it  to  cultivate  the 
soil;  the  Indians  ought  in  the  first  place  to  have  been  accus- 
tomed to  agriculture.  But  not  only  are  they  destitute  of  this 
indispensable  preliminary  to  civilization,  they  would  even  have 
great  difficulty  in  acquiring  it.  Men  who  have  once  abandoned 
themselves  to  the  restless  and  adventurous  life  of  the  hunter, 
feel  an  insurmountable  disgust  for  the  constant  and  regular 
labor  which  tillage  requires.  We  see  this  proved  in  the  bosom 
of  our  own  society;  but  it  is  far  more  visible  among  peoples 
whose  partiality  for  the  chase  is  a  part  of  their  national  char- 
acter. 

Independently  of  this  general  difficulty,  there  is  another, 
which  applies  peculiarly  to  the  Indians;  they  consider  labor 
not  merely  as  an  evil,  but  as  a  disgrace ;  so  that  their  pride  pre- 
vents them  from  becoming  civilized,  as  much  as  their  indolence.' 

There  is  no  Indian  so  wretched  as  not  to  retain  under  his  hut 
of  bark  a  lofty  idea  of  his  personal  worth;  he  considers  the 
cares  of  industry  and  labor  as  degrading  occupations ;  he  com- 
pares the  husbandman  to  the  ox  which  traces  the  furrow ;  and 
even  in  our  most  ingenious  handicraft,  he  can  see  nothing  but 
the  labor  of  slaves.  Not  that  he  is  devoid  of  admiration  for 
the  power  and  intellectual  greatness  of  the  whites;  but  al- 
though the  result  of  our  efforts  surprises  him,  he  contemns  the 
means  by  which  we  obtain  it ;  and  while  he  acknowledges  our 
ascendancy,  he  still  believes  in  his  superiority.  War  and  hunt- 
ing are  the  only  pursuits  which  appear  to  him  worthy  to  be  the 
occupations  of  a  man.*"  The  Indian,  in  the  dreary  solitude  of 
his  woods,  cherishes  the  same  ideas,  the  same  opinions  as  the 
noble  of  the  Middle  Ages  in  his  castle,  and  he  only  requires  to 
become  a  conqueror  to  complete  the  resemblance;  thus,  how- 


;  "  In  all  the  tribes,"  says  Volney,  in 
his  "  Tableau  des  Etats-Unis,"  p.  423, 
"  there  still  exists  a  generation  of  old 
warriors,  who  cannot  forbear,  when 
they  see  their  countrymen  using  the 
hoe,  from  exclaiming  against  the  de- 
gradation of  ancient  manners,  and  as- 
serting that  the  savages  owe  their  de- 
cline to  these  innovations  ;  adding,  that 
they  have  only  to  return  to  their  primi- 
tive habits  in  order  to  recover  their 
power  and  their  glory." 

wi  The  following  description  occurs  in 
an  official  document:  "  Until  a  young 
man  has  been  engaged  with  an  enemy, 
and  has  performed  some  acts  of  valor, 
he  gains  no  consideration,  but  is  regard- 
ed nearly  as  a  woman.  In  their  great 
war-dances  all  the  warriors  in  succes- 


sion strike  the  post,  as  it  is  called,  and 
recount  their  exploits.  On  these  oc- 
casions their  auditory  consists  of  the 
kinsmen,  friends,  and  comrades  of  the 
narrator.  The  profound  impression 
which  his  discourse  produces  on  them 
is  manifested  by  the  silent  attention  it 
receives,  and  by  the  loud  shouts  which 
hail  its  termination.  The  young  man 
who  finds  himself  at  such  a  meeting 
without  anything  to  recount  is  very  un- 
happy ;  and  instances  have  sometimes 
occurred  of  younR  warriors,  whose  ;)as- 
sions  had  been  thus  inflamed,  q^uittine 
the  war-dance  suddenly,  and  gomg  oft 
alone  to  seek  for  trophies  which  they 
might  exhibit,  and  adventures  whicn 
they  might  be  allowed  to  relate." 


h\ 


■<! 


(•! 


iii 


Hi 


350 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


ever  strange  it  may  seem,  it  is  in  the  forests  of  the  New  World, 
and  not  amongst  the  Europeans  who  people  its  coasts,  that  the 
ancient  prejudices  of  Europe  are  still  in  existence. 

More  than  once,  in  the  course  of  this  work,  I  have  endeavored 
to  explain  the  prodigious  influence  which  the  social  condition 
appears  to  exercise  upon  the  laws  and  the  manners  of  men; 
and  I  beg  to  add  a  few  words  on  the  same  subject. 

When  I  perceive  the  resemblance  which  exists  between  the 
political  institutions  of  our  ancestors,  the  Germans,  and  of  the 
wandering  tribes  of  North  America ;  between  the  customs  de- 
scribed by  Tacitus,  and  those  of  which  I  have  sometimes  been  a 
witness,  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  the  same  cause  has  brought 
about  the  same  results  in  both  hemispheres;  and  that  in  the 
midst  of  the  apparent  diversity  of  human  affairs,  a  certain 
number  of  primary  facts  may  Ee  discovered,  from  which  all  the 
others  are  derived.  In  what  we  usually  call  the  German  insti- 
tutions, then,  I  am  inclined  only  to  perceive  barbarian  habits; 
and  the  opinions  of  savages  in  what  we  style  feudal  principles. 

However  strongly  the  vices  and  prejudices  of  the  North 
American  Indians  may  be  opposed  to  their  becoming  agricul- 
tural and  civilized,  necessity  sometimes  obliges  them  to  it.  Sev- 
eral of  the  Southern  nations,  and  amongst  others  the  Cherokees 
and  the  Creeks,"  were  surrounded  by  Europeans,  who  had 
landed  on  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic ;  and  who,  either  descend- 
ing the  Ohio  or  proceeding  up  the  Mississippi,  arrived  simul- 
taneously upon  their  borders.  These  tribes  have  not  been 
driven  from  place  to  place,  like  their  Northern  brethren ;  but 
they  have  been  gradually  enclosed  within  narrow  limits,  like 
the  game  within  the  thicket,  before  the  huntsmen  plunge  into 
the  interior.  The  Indians  who  were  thus  placed  between  civili- 
zation and  death,  found  themselves  obliged  to  live  by  ignomin- 
ious labor  like  the  whites.  They  took  to  agriculture,  and  with- 
out entirely  forsaking  their  old  habits  or  manners,  sacrificed 
only  as  much  as  was  necessary  to  their  existence. 


n  These  nations  are  now  swallowed  up 
in  the  States  of  Georgia,  Tennessee, 
Alabama,  and  Mississippi.  There  were 
formerly  in  the  South  tour  great  nations 
(remnants  of  which  still  exist),  the 
Choctaws,  the  Chickasaws,  the  Creeks, 
and  the  Cherokees.  The  remnants  of 
these  four  nations  amounted,  in  1830,  to 
about  75,000  individuals.  It  is  computed 
that  there  are  now  remaininc  in  the 
territory  occupied  or  claimed  by  the 
Aniflo-American  Union  about  300.000 
Indians.     (See  Proceedings  of  the  Ind- 


ian Board  in  the  City  of  New  York.) 
The  official  documents  supplied  to  Con- 
gress make  the  number  amount  to  313,- 
130.  The  reader  who  is  curious  to  know 
the  names  and  numerical  strength  of  all 
the  tribes  which  inhabit  the  Anglo- 
American  territory  should  consult  the 
documents  I  refer  to.  (Legislative 
Documents,  20th  Congress,  No.  117,  pp. 
90-ios.)  [In  the  Census  of  1870  it  is 
stated  that  the  Indian  population  of  the 
United  States  is  only  25,731,  of  whom 
7,241  are  in  California.] 


i  ) 

(I 
'  i 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


351 


/ 


I 


The  Cherokees  went  further;  they  created  a  written  lan- 
guage; established  a  permanent  form  of  government;  and  as 
everything  proceeds  rapidly  in  the  New  World,  before  they  had 
all  of  them  clothes,  they  set  up  a  newspaper." 

The  growth  of  European  habits  has  been  remarkably  accel- 
erated among  these  Indians  by  the  mixed  race  which  has  sprung 
up.P  Deriving  intelligence  from  their  father's  side,  without  en- 
tirely losing  the  savage  customs  of  the  mother,  the  half-blood 
forms  the  natural  link  between  civilization  and  barbarism. 
Wherever  this  race  has  multiplied  the  savage  state  has  become 
modified,  and  a  great  change  has  taken  place  in  the  manners  of 
the  people.9 

The  success  of  the  Cherokees  proves  that  the  Indians  are 
capable  of  civilization,  but  it  does  not  prove  that  they  will  suc- 
ceed in  it.  This  difficulty  which  the  Indians  fin3  in  submitting 
to  civilization  proceeds  from  the  influence  of  a  general  cause, 
which  it  is  almost  impossible  for  them  to  escape.  An  attentive 
survey  of  history  demonstrates  that,  in  general,  barbarous  na- 
tions have  raised  themselves  to  civilization  by  degrees,  and  by 
their  own  efforts.  Whenever  they  derive  knowledge  from  a 
foreign  people,  they  stood  towards  it  in  the  relation  of  con- 
querors, and  not  of  a  conquered  nation.  When  the  conquered 
nation  is  enlightened,  and  the  conquerors  are  half  savage,  as  in 
the  case  of  the  invasion  of  Rome  by  the  Northern  nations  or 
that  of  China  by  the  Mongols,  the  power  which  victory  bestows 


0 1  brought  back  with  me  to  France 
one  or  two  copies  of  this  singular  publi- 
cation. 

p  See  in  the  Report  of  the  Committee 
on  Indian  Affairs,  21st  Congress,  No. 
227,  P-  23,  the  reasons  for  the  multiplica- 
tion of  Indians  of  mixed  blood  among 
the  Cherokees.  The  principal  cause 
dates  from  the  War  of  Independence. 
Many  Anglo-Americans  of  Georgia,  hav- 
ing taken  the  side  of  England,  were 
obliged  to  retreat  among  the  Indians, 
where  they  married. 

q  Unhappily  the  mixed  race  has  been 
less  numerous  and  less  influential  in 
North  America  than  in  any  other  coun- 
try. The  American  continent  was  peo- 
pled by  two  great  nations  of  Europe, 
the  French  and  the  English.  The  former 
were  not  slow  in  connecting  themselves 
with  the  daughters  of  the  natives,  but 
there  was  an  unfortunate  affinity  be- 
tween the  Indian  character  and  their 
own  :  instead  of  giving  the  tastes  and 
habits  of  civilizea  life  to  the  savages, 
the  French  too  often  grew  passionately 
fond  of  the  state  of  wild  freedom  they 
found  them  in.  They  became  the  most 
dangerous    of    the    inhabitants    of    the 


desert,  and  won  the  friendship  of  the 
Indian  by  exaggerating  his  vices  and  his 
virtues.  M.  de  Senonville,  the  gover- 
nor of  Canada,  wrote  thus  to  Louis 
XIV  in  1685:  "  It  has  long  been  believed 
that  in  order  to  civilize  the  savages  we 
ought  to  draw  them  nearer  to  us.  But 
there  is  every  reason  to  suppose  we 
have  been  mistaken.  Those  which  have 
been  brought  into  contact  with  us  have 
not  become  French,  and  the  French  who 
have  lived  among  them  are  changed  into 
savages,  affecting  to  dress  and  live  like 
them."  {"  History  of  New  France,"  by 
Charlevoix,  vol.  ii.,  p.  345.)  The  Eng- 
lishman, on  the  contrary,  continuing 
obstinately  attached  to  the  customs  and 
the  most  insignificant  habits  of  his  fore- 
fathers, has  remained  in  the  midst  of 
the  American  solitudes  just  what  he  was 
in  the  bosom  of  European  cities  ;  he 
would  not  allow  of  any  communication 
with  savap^es  whom  he  despised,  and 
avoided  with  care  the  union  of  his  race 
with  theirs.  Thus  while  the  French  ex- 
ercised no  salutary  influence  over  the 
Indians,  the  English  have  always  re- 
mained alien  from  them. 


',??. 


5S« 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


^l 


i| 


upon  the  barbarian  is  sufficient  to  keep  up  his  importance  among 
civilized  men,  and  permit  him  to  rank  as  their  equal,  until  he 
becomes  their  rival :  the  one  has  might  on  his  side,  the  other 
has  intelligence;  the  former  admires  the  knowledge  and  the 
arts  of  the  conquered,  the  latter  envies  the  power  of  the  con- 
querors. The  barbarians  at  length  admit  civilized  man  into 
their  palaces,  and  he  in  turn  opens  his  schools  to  the  barbarians. 
But  when  the  side  on  which  the  physical  force  lies,  also  pos- 
sesses an  intellectual  preponderance,  the  conquered  party  sel- 
dom become  civilized;  it  retreats,  or  is  destroyed.  It  may 
therefore  be  said,  in  a  general  way,  that  savages  go  forth  in 
arms  to  seek  knowledge,  but  that  they  do  not  receive  it  when  it 
comes  to  them. 

If  the  Indian  tribes  which  now  inhabit  the  heart  of  the  con- 
tinent could  summon  up  energy  enough  to  attempt  to  civilize 
themselves,  they  might  possibly  succeed.  Superior  already  to 
the  barbarous  nations  which  surround  them,  they  would  gradu- 
ally gain  strength  and  experience,  and  when  the  Europeans 
should  appear  upon  their  borders,  they  would  be  in  a  state,  if 
not  to  maintain  their  independence,  at  least  to  assert  their  right 
to  the  soil,  and  to  incorporate  themselves  with  the  conquerors. 
But  it  is  the  misfortune  of  Indians  to  be  brought  into  contact 
with  a  civilized  people,  which  is  also  (it  must  be  owned)  the 
most  avaricious  nation  on  the  globe,  whilst  they  are  still  semi- 
barbarian:  to  find  despots  in  their  instructors,  and  lo  receive 
knowledge  from  the  hand  of  oppression.  Living  in  the  free- 
dom of  the  woods,  the  North  American  Indian  was  destitute, 
but  he  had  no  feeling  of  inferiority  towards  anyone ;  as  soon, 
however,  as  he  desires  to  penetrate  into  the  social  scale  of  the 
whites,  he  takes  the  lowest  rank  in  society,  for  he  enters,  ig- 
norant and  poor,  within  the  pale  of  science  and  wealth.  After 
having  led  a  life  of  agitation,  beset  with  evils  and  dangers,  but 
at  the  same  time  filled  with  proud  emotions,*'  he  is  obliged  to 


r  There  is  in  the  adventurous  life  of 
the  hunter  a  certain  irresistible  charm, 
which  seizes  the  heart  of  man  and  car- 
ries him  away  in  spite  of  reason  and  ex- 
perience. This  is  plainly  shown  by  the 
memoirs  of  Tanner.  Tanner  is  a  Euro- 
pean who  was  carried  away  at  the  age 
of  six  by  the  Indians,  and  has  remained 
thirty  years  with  them  in  the  woods. 
Nothing  can  be  conceived  more  ap- 
palling that  the  miseries  which  he  de- 
scribes. He  tells  us  of  tribes  without  a 
chief,  families  without  a  nation  to  call 
their  own,  men  in  a  state  of  isolation, 


wrecks  of  powerful  tribes  wandering  at 
random  amid  the  ice  and  snow  and 
desolate  solitudes  of  Canada.  Hunger 
and  cold  pursue  them  ;  every  day  their 
life  is  in  jeopardy.  Amongst  these  men, 
manners  have  lost  their  empire,  tradi- 
tions are  without  power.  They  become 
more  and  more  savage.  Tanner  shared 
in  all  these  miseries  ;  he  was  aware  of 
his  European  origin  ;  he  was  not  kept 
away  from  the  whites  by  force  ;  on  the 
contrary,  he  came  every  year  to  trade 
with  them,  entered  their  dwellings,  and 
witnessed  their  enjoyments  ;  he  knew 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


353 


submit  to  a  wearisome,  obscure,  and  degraded  state;  and  to 
gain  the  bread  which  nourishes  him  by  hard  and  ignoble  labor ; 
such  are  in  his  eyes  the  only  results  of  which  civilization  can 
boast :  and  even  this  much  he  is  not  sur^  to  obtain. 

When  the  Indians  undertake  to  imitate  their  European  neigh- 
bors, and  to  till  the  earth  like  the  settlers,  they  are  immediately 
exposed  to  a  very  formidable  competition.  The  white  man  is 
skilled  in  the  craft  of  agriculture ;  the  Indian  is  a  rough  begin- 
ner in  an  art  with  which  he  is  unacquainted.  The  former  reaps 
abundant  crops  without  difficulty,  the  latter  meets  with  a  thou- 
sand obstacles  in  raising  the  fruits  of  the  earth. 

The  European  is  placed  amongst  a  population  whose  wants 
he  knows  and  partakes.  The  savage  is  isolated  in  the  midst  of 
a  hostile  people,  with  whose  manners,  language,  and  laws  he  is 
imperfectly  acquainted,  but  without  whose  assistance  he  can- 
not live.  He  can  only  procure  the  materials  of  comfort  by  bar- 
tering his  commodities  against  the  goods  of  the  European,  for 
the  assistance  of  his  countrymen  is  wholly  insufficient  to  supply 
his  wants.  When  the  Indian  wishes  to  sell  the  produce  of  his 
labor,  he  cannot  always  meet  with  a  purchaser,  whilst  the  Euro- 
pean readily  finds  a  market ;  and  the  former  can  only  produce 
at  a  considerable  cost  that  which  the  latter  vends  at  a  very  low 
rate.  Thus  the  Indian  has  no  sooner  escaped  those  evils  to 
which  barbarous  nations  are  exposed,  than  he  is  subjected  to 
the  still  greater  miseries  of  civilized  communities;  and  he 
finds  is  scarcely  less  difficult  to  live  in  the  midst  of  our  abun- 
dance, than  in  the  depth  of  his  own  wilderness. 

He  has  not  yet  lost  the  habits  of  his  erratic  life ;  the  tradi- 
tions of  his  fathers  and  his  passion  for  the  chase  are  still  alive 
within  him.  The  wild  enjoyments  which  formerly  animated 
him  in  the  woods,  painfully  excite  his  troubled  imagination; 
and  his  former  privations  appear  to  be  less  keen,  his  former 
perils  less  appalling.  He  contrasts  the  independence  which  he 
possessed  amongst  his  equals  with  the  servile  position  which  he 


/ 


that  whenever  he  chose  to  return  to 
civilized  life  he  was  perfectly  able  to  do 
so — and  he  remained  thirty  years  in  the 
deserts.  When  he  came  into  civilized 
society  he  declared  that  the  rude  ex- 
istence which  he  described,  had  a  secret 
charm  for  him  which  he  was  unable  to 
define  :  he  returned  to  it  again  and 
again  :  at  length  he  abandoned  it  with 
poignant  regret  ;  and  when  he  was  at 
length  fixed  among  the  whites,  several 

Vol.  I.— 23 


of  Kis  children  refused  to  share  his  tran- 
quil and  easy  situation.  I  saw  Tanner 
myself  at  the  lower  end  of  Lake  Su- 
perior ;  he  seemed  to  me  to  be  more  like 
a  savage  than  a  civilized  being.  His 
book  is  written  without  either  taste  or 
order;  but  he  gives,  even  unconscious- 
ly, a  lively  picture  of  the  prejudices,  the 
passions,  the  vices,  and,  above  all,  of 
the  destitution  in  which  he  lived. 


^/ 


354 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


\A 


'I 


occupies  in  civilized  society.  On  the  other  hand,  the  solitudes 
which  were  so  long  his  free  home  are  still  at  hand;  a  few 
hours'  march  will  bring  him  back  to  them  once  more.  The 
whites  offer  him  a  sum,  which  seems  to  him  to  be  considerable, 
for  the  ground  which  he  has  begun  to  clear.  This  money  of 
the  Europeans  may  possibly  furnish  him  with  the  means  of  a 
happy  and  peaceful  subsistence  in  remoter  regions;  and  he 
quits  the  plough,  resumes  his  native  arms,  and  returns  to  the 
wilderness  forever.*  The  condition  of  the  Creeks  and  Chero- 
kees,  to  which  I  have  already  alluded,  sufficiently  corroborates 
the  truth  of  this  deplorable  picture. 

The  Indians,  in  the  little  which  they  have  done,  have  un- 
questionably displayed  as  much  natural  genius  as  the  peoples 
of  Europe  in  their  most  important  designs ;  but  nations  as  well 
as  men  require  time  to  learn,  whatever  may  be  their  intelli- 
gence and  their  zeal.  Whilst  the  savages  were  engaged  in  the 
work  of  civilization,  the  Europeans  continued  to  surround  them 
on  every  side,  and  to  confine  them  within  narrower  limits ;  the 
two  races  gradually  met,  and  they  are  now  in  immediate  juxta- 
position to  each  other.  The  Indian  is  already  superior  to  his 
barbarous  parent,  but  he  is  still  very  far  below  his  white  neigh- 
bor. With  their  resources  and  acquired  knowledge,  the  Euro- 
peans soon  appropriated  to  themselves  most  of  the  advantages 
which  the  natives  might  have  derived  from  the  possession  of 
the  soil ;  they  have  settled  in  the  country,  they  have  purchased 


i  The  dcstructice  influence  of  highly 
civilized  nations  upon  others  which  are 
less  so,  has  been  exemplified  by  the 
Europeans  themselves.  About  a  century 
ago  tne  French  founded  the  town  of  Vin- 
cennes  up  on  the  Wabash,  jn  the  middle 
of  the  desert  ;  and  they  lived  there  in 
great  plenty  until  the  arrival  of  the  Am- 
erican settlers,  who  first  ruined  the  pre- 
vious inhabitants  by  their  competition, 
and  afterwards  purchased  their  lands  at 
a  very  low  rate.  At  the  time  when  M. 
de  Volney,  from  whom  I  borrow  these 
details,  passed  through  Vincennes,  the 
number  of  the  French  was  reduced  to  a 
hundred  individuals,  most  of  whom  were 
about  to  pass  over  to  Louisiana  or  to 
Canada.  These  French  settlers  were 
worthy  people,  but  idle  and  unin- 
structed:  they  had  contracted  many  of 
the  habits  of  savages.  The  Americans, 
who  were  perhaps  their  inferiors,  in  a 
moral  point  of  view,  were  immeasurably 
superior  to  them  in  intelligence  :  they 
were  industrious,  well  informed,  rich, 
and  accustomed  to  govern  their  own 
community. 

I  myself  saw  in  Canada,  where  the  in- 
tellectual difference  between  the  two 
races  is  less  striking,  that  the  English 


are  the  masters  of  commerce  and  manu- 
facture in  the  Canadian  country,  that 
they  spread  on  all  sides,  and  confine  the 
French  within  limits  which  scarcely  suf- 
fice to  contain  them.  In  like  manner,  in 
Louisiana,  almost  all  activity  in  com- 
merce and  manuf.-icture  centres  in  the 
hands  of  the  Anglo-Americans. 

But  the  case  of  Texas  is  still  more 
striking  :  the  State  of  Texas  is  a  part  of 
Mexico,  and  lies  upon  the  frontier  be- 
tween that  country  and  the  United 
States.  In  the  course  of  the  last  few 
years  the  Anplo-Americans  have  pene- 
trated into  this  province,  which  is  still 
thinly  peopled;  they  purchase  land, 
they  produce  the  commodities  of  the 
country,  and  supplant  the  original  popu- 
lation. It  may  easily  be  foreseen  that  if 
Mexico  takes  no  steps  to  check  this 
change,  the  province  of  Texas  will  very 
shortly  cease  to  belong  to  that  govern- 
ment. 

If  the  different  decrees— comparatively 
so  slight — which  exist  in  European  civil- 
ization produce  results  of  such  magni- 
tude, the  consequences  which  must 
ensue  from  the  collision  of  the  most 
perfect  European  civilization  with  Ind- 
ian savages  may  readily  be  conceived. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


355 


/ 


land  at  a  very  low  rate  or  have  occupied  it  by  force,  and  the 
Indians  have  been  ruined  by  a  competition  which  they  had  not 
the  means  of  resisting.  They  were  isolated  in  their  own  coun- 
try, and  their  race  only  constituted  a  colony  of  troublesome 
aliens  in  the  midst  of  a  numerous  and  domineering  people.' 

Washington  said  in  one  of  his  messages  to  Congress,  "  We 
are  more  enlightened  and  more  powerful  than  the  Indian  na- 
tions, we  are  therefore  bound  in  honor  to  treat  them  with 
kindness  and  even  with  generosity."  But  this  virtuous  and  high- 
minded  policy  has  not  been  followed.  The  rapacity  of  the  set- 
tlers is  usually  backed  by  the  tyranny  of  the  government.  Al- 
though the  Cherokecs  anc.  the  Creeks  are  established  upon  the 
territory  which  they  inhabited  before  the  settlement  of  the 
Europeans,  and  although  the  Americans  have  frequently  treated 
with  them  as  with  foreign  nations,  the  surrounding  States  have 
not  consented  to  acknowledge  them  as  independent  peoples,  and 
attempts  have  been  made  to  subject  these  children  of  the  woods 
to  Anglo-American  magistrates,  laws,  and  customs."  Destitu- 
tion had  driven  these  unfortunate  Indians  to  civilization,  and 
oppression  now  drives  them  back  to  their  former  condition: 
many  of  them  abandon  the  soil  which  they  had  begun  to  clear, 
and  return  to  their  savage  course  of  life. 

If  we  consider  the  tyrannical  measures  which  have  been 
adopted  by  the  legislatures  of  the  Southern  States,  the  conduct 
of  their  Governors,  and  the  decrees  of  their  courts  of  justice, 
we  shall  be  convinced  that  the  entire  expulsion  of  the  Indians 
is  the  final  result  to  which  the  efforts  of  their  policy  are  directed. 


/ 


( See  in  the  Legislative  Documents 
(21st  Congress,  No.  89)  instances  of  ex- 
cesses of  every  kind  committed  by  the 
whites  upon  the  territory  of  the  Ind- 
ians, either  in  taking  possession  of  a 
part  of  their  lands,  until  compelled  to 
retire  by  the  troops  of  Congress,  or  car- 
rying off  their  cattle,  burning  their 
houses,  cutting  down  their  corn,  and  do- 
ing violence  to  their  persons.  It  ap- 
pears, nevertheless,  from  all  these  docu- 
ments that  the  claims  of  the  natives  arc 
constantly  protected  by  the  government 
from  the  abuse  of  force.  The  Union 
has  a  representative  agent  continually 
employed  to  reside  among  the  Indians  ; 
and  the  report  of  the  Cherokee  agent, 
which  is  among  the  documents  I  have 
referred  to,  is  almost  always  favorable 
to  the  Indians.  "  The  intrusion  of 
whites,"  he  says,  "  upon  the  lands  of 
the  Cherokees  would  cause  ruin  to  the 
poor,  helpless,  and  inoffensive  inhabi- 
tants." And  he  further  remarks  upon 
the  attempt  of  the  State  of  Georgia  to 


establish  a  division  line  for  the  purpose 
of  limiting  the  boundaries  of  the  Chero- 
kees, that  the  line  drawn  having  bsen 
made  by  the  whites,  and  entirely  upon 
ex  parte  evidence  of  their  several  rights, 
was  of  no  validity  whatever. 

M  In  1829  the  State  of  Alabama  divided 
the  Creek  territory  into  counties,  and 
subjected  the  Indian  population  to  the 
power  of  European  magistrates. 

In  1830  the  State  of  Mississippi  assim- 
ilated the  Choctaws  and  Chickasaws  to 
the  white  population,  and  declared  that 
any  of  them  that  should  take  the  title  of 
chief  would  be  punished  by  a  fine  of 
$1,000  and  a  year's  imprisonment.  When 
these  laws  were  enforced  upon  the 
Choctaws,  who  inhabited  that  district, 
the  tribe  assembled,  their  chief  commu- 
nicated to  them  the  intentions  of  the 
whites,  and  read  to  them  some  of  the 
laws  to  which  it  was  intended  that  they 
should  submit  ;  and  they  unanimously 
declared  that  it  was  better  at  once  to 
retreat  again  into  the  wilds. 


356 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


,»;■ 


1 .11 


The  Americans  of  that  part  of  the  Union  look  with  jealousy 
upon  the  aborigines.^  they  are  aware  that  these  tribes  have  not 
yet  lost  the  traditions  of  savage  life,  and  before  civilization  has 
permanently  fixed  them  to  the  soil,  it  is  intended  to  force  them 
to  recede  by  reducing  them  to  despair.  The  Creeks  and  Chero- 
kees,  oppressed  by  the  several  States,  have  appealed  to  the  cen- 
tral government,  which  is  by  no  means  insensible  to  their  mis- 
fortunes, and  is  sincerely  desirous  of  saving  the  remnant  of 
the  natives,  and  of  maintaining  them  in  the  free  possession  of 
that  territory,  which  the  Union  is  pledged  to  respect.w  But 
the  several  States  oppose  so  formidable  a  resistance  to  the  exe- 
cution of  this  design,  that  the  government  is  obliged  to  consent 
to  the  extirpation  of  a  few  barbarous  tribes  in  order  not  to  en- 
danger the  safety  of  the  American  Union. 

But  the  federal  government,  which  is  not  able  to  protect 
the  Indians,  would  fain  mitigate  the  hardships  of  their  lot ;  and, 
with  this  intention,  proposals  have  been  made  to  transport  them 
into  more  remote  regions  at  the  public  cost. 

Between  the  thirty-third  and  thirty-seventh  degrees  of  north 
latitude,  a  vast  tract  of  country  lies,  which  has  taken  the  name 
of  Arkansas,  from  the  principal  river  that  waters  its  extent.  It 
is  bounded  on  the  one  side  by  the  confines  of  Mexico,  on  the 
other  by  the  Mississippi.  Numberless  streams  cross  it  in  every 
direction ;  the  climate  is  mild,  and  the  soil  productive,  but  it  is 
only  inhabited  by  a  few  wandering  hordes  of  savages.  The 
government  of  the  Union  wishes  to  transport  the  broken  rem- 
nants of  the  indigenous  population  of  the  South  to  the  portion 
of  this  country  which  is  nearest  to  Mexico,  and  at  a  great  dis- 
tance from  the  American  settlements. 

We  were  assured,  towards  the  end  of  the  year  1831,  that  10,- 
000  Indians  had  already  gone  down  to  the  shores  of  the  Ar- 
kansas ;  and  fresh  detachments  were  constantly  following  them ; 
but  Congress  has  been  unable  to  excite  a  unanimous  deter- 
mination in  those  whom  it  is  disposed  to  protect.  Some,  in- 
deed, are  willing  to  quit  the  seat  of  oppression,  but  the  most 


vThe  Georgians,  who  are  so  much 
annoyed  hy  the  proximity  of  the  Ind- 
ians, inhabit  a  territory  which  does 
not  at  present  contain  more  than  seven 
inhabitants  to  the  square  mile.  In 
France  there  are  one  hundred  and  sixty- 
two  inhabitants  to  the  same  extent  of 
country. 

win   1818   Congress  appointed  com- 


missioners  to  visit  the  Arkansas  Terri- 
tory, accompanied  by  a  deputation  of 
Creeks,  Choctaws,  and  Chickasaws. 
This  exoedition  was  commanded  by 
Messrs.  Kennerlv,  M'Coy,  Wash  Hood, 
and  John  Bell.  See  the  different  reports 
of  the  commissioners,  and  their  journal, 
in  the  Documents  of  Congress,  No.  87, 
House  of  Representatives. 


I  1 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


3S7 


enlightened  members  of  the  community  refuse  to  abandon  their 
recent  dwellings  and  their  springing  crops ;  they  are  of  opinion 
that  the  work  of  civilization,  once  interrupted,  will  never  be 
resumed ;  they  fear  that  those  domestic  habits  which  have  been 
80  recently  contracted,  may  be  irrevocably  lost  in  the  midst  of  a 
country  which  is  still  barbarous,  and  where  nothing  is  pre- 
pared for  the  subsistence  of  an  agricultural  people ;  they  know 
that  their  entrance  into  those  wilds  will  be  opposed  by  inimical 
hordes,  and  that  they  have  lost  the  energy  of  barbarians,  with- 
out acquiring  the  resources  of  civilization  to  resist  their 
attacks.  Moreover,  the  Indians  readily  discover  that  the  set- 
tlement which  is  proposed  to  them  is  merely  a  temporary  expedi- 
ent. Who  can  assure  them  that  they  will  at  length  be  allowed 
to  dwell  in  peace  in  their  new  retreat?  The  United  States 
pledge  themselves  to  the  observance  of  the  obligation ;  but  the 
territory  which  they  at  present  occupy  was  formerly  secured  to 
them  by  the  most  solemn  oaths  of  Anglo-American  faith.* 
The  American  government  does  not  indeed  rob  them  of  their 
lands,  but  it  allows  perpetual  incursions  to  be  made  on  them. 
In  a  few  years  the  same  white  population  which  now  flocks 
around  them,  will  track  them  to  the  solitudes  of  the  Arkansas ; 
they  will  then  be  exposed  to  the  same  evils  without  the  same 
remedies,  and  as  the  limits  of  the  earth  will  at  last  fail  them, 
their  only  refuge  is  the  grave. 

The  Union  treats  the  Indians  with  less  cupidity  and  rigor 
than  the  policy  of  the  several  States,  but  the  two  governments 
are  alike  destitute  of  good  faith.  The  States  extend  what  they 
are  pleased  to  term  the  benefits  of  their  laws  to  the  Indians, 
with  a  belief  that  the  tribes  will  recede  rather  than  submit; 
and  the  central  government,  which  promises  a  permanent 
refuge  to  these  unhappy  beings  is  well  aware  of  its  inability  to 
secure  it  to  them.y 


X  The  fifth  article  of  the  treaty  made 
with  the  Creeks  in  August,  i7go,  is  in 
the  following  words:— "The  United 
States  solemnly  guarantee  to  the  Creek 
nation  al!  their  land  within  the  limits 
of  the  United  States." 

The  seventh  article  of  the  treaty  con- 
cluded in  1791  with  the  Cherokees  says: 
— "  The  United  States  solemnly  guar- 
antee to  the  Cherokes  nation  all  their 
lands  not  hereby  ceded."  The  following 
article  declared  that  if  any  citizen  of 
the  United  States  or  other  settler  not  of 
the  Indian  race  should  establish  him- 
self upon  the  territory  of  the  Cherokees, 
the  United  States  would  withdVaw  their 


^'  protection  from  that  individual,  and  give 
him  up  to  be  punished  as  the  Cheroicee 
nation  should  think  fit. 

y  This  does  not  prevent  them  from 
promising  in  the  most  solemn  manner 
to  do  so.  See  the  letter  of  the  President 
addressed  to  the  Creek  Indians,  March 
23,  i82()  (Proceedings  of  the  Indian 
Board,  in  the  city  of  New  York,  p.  $): 
"  Beyond  the  great  river  Mississippi, 
where  a  part  of  your  nation  has  gone, 
your  father  has  provided  a  country 
large  enough  for  all  of  jrou,  and  he  ad- 
vises you  to  remove  to  it.  There  your 
white  brothers  will  not  trouble  you  : 
they  will  have  no  claim  to  the  land,  and 


358 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


13 


h'l 

m 


Thus  the  tyranny  of  the  States  obliges  the  savages  to  retire, 
the  Union,  by  its  promises  and  resources,  facilitates  their  re- 
treat; and  these  measures  tend  to  precisely  the  same  end.' 
"  By  the  will  of  our  Father  in  Heaven,  the  Governor  of  the 
whole  world,"  said  the  Cherokees  in  their  petition  to  Congress," 
"  the  red  man  of  America  has  become  small,  and  the  white  man 
great  and  renowned.  When  the  ancestors  of  the  people  of  these 
United  States  first  came  to  the  shores  of  America  they  found 
the  red  man  strong:  though  he  was  ignorant  and  savage,  yet 
he  received  them  kindly,  and  gave  them  dry  land  to  rest  their 
weary  feet.  They  met  in  peace,  and  shook  hands  in  token  of 
friendship.  Whatever  the  white  man  wanted  and  asked  of  the 
Indian,  the  latter  willingly  gave.  At  that  time  the  Indian  was 
the  lord,  and  the  white  man  the  suppliant.  But  now  the  scene 
has  changed.  The  strength  of  the  red  man  has  become  weak- 
ness. As  his  neighbors  increased  in  numbers  his  power  be- 
came less  and  less,  and  now,  of  the  many  and  powerful  tribes 
who  once  covered  these  United  States,  only  a  few  are  to  be  seen 
— a  few  whom  a  sweeping  pestilence  has  left.  The  northern 
tribes,  who  were  once  so  numerous  and  powerful,  are  now 
nearly  extinct.  Thus  it  has  happened  to  the  red  man  of  Ameri- 
ca.   Shall  we,  who  are  remnants,  share  the  same  fate? 

"  The  land  on  which  we  stand  we  have  received  as  an  in- 
heritance from  our  fathers,  who  possessed  it  from  time  imme- 
morial, as  a  gift  from  our  common  Father  in  Heaven.  They 
bequeathed  it  to  us  as  their  children,  and  we  have  sacredly  kept 
it,  as  containing  the  remains  of  our  beloved  men.  This  right 
of  inheritance  we  have  never  ceded  nor  ever  forfeited.  Permit 
us  to  ask  what  better  right  can  the  people  have  to  a  country 
than  the  right  of  inheritance  and  immemorial  peaceable  posses- 
sion ?  We  know  it  is  said  of  late  by  the  State  of  Georgia  and 
by  the  Executive  of  the  United  States,  that  we  have  forfeited 


you  can  live  upon  it,  you  and  all  your 
children,  as  lonft  as  the  grass  ftrows,  or 
the  water  runs,  in  peace  and  plenty.  It 
will  be  yours  forever." 

The  Secretary  of  War,  in  a  letter  writ- 
ten to  the  Cherokees,  April  i8,  1829,  (see 
the  same  work,  p.  6),  declares  to  them 
that  they  cannot  expect  to  retain  pos- 
session of  the  lands  at  that  time  oc- 
cupied by  them,  but  gives  them  the 
most  positive  assurance  of  uninterrupted 
peace  if  they  would  remove  beyond  the 
Mississippi  :  as  if  the  power  which  could 
not  grant  them  protection  then,  would 
be  able  to  afford  it  them  hereafter  ! 


a  To  obtain  a  correct  idea  of  the  policy 
pursued  by  the  several  States  and  the 
Union  with  respect  to  the  Indians,  it 
is  necessary  to  consult,  ist,  "  The  Laws 
of  the  Colonial  and  State  Governments 
relating  to  the  Indian  Inhabitants." 
(See  the  Legislative  Documents,  21st 
Congress,  No.  319.)  2d,  The  Laws  of 
the  Union  on  the  same  subject,  and 
especially  that  of  March  30,  1802.  (See 
Story's  ^'  Laws  of  the  United  States.") 
3d,  The  Report  of  Mr.  Cass,  Secretary 
of  War,  relative  to  Indian  Affairs,  No- 
vember 2Q,  1823. 

a  December  18,  1829. 


^ 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


S89 


*^ 


this  right;  but  we  think  this  is  said  gratuitously.  At  what 
time  li.  ve  we  made  the  forfeit?  What  great  crime  have  we 
committed,  whereby  we  must  forever  be  divested  of  our  coun- 
try and  rights?  Was  it  when  we  were  hostile  to  the  United 
States,  and  took  pari  with  the  King  of  Great  Britain,  during 
the  "itrugglc  (or  independence?  If  so,  why  was  not  this  for- 
feiture 'iclared  in  tlic  first  treaty  of  peace  between  the  United 
States  and  our  beloved  men?  Why  was  not  such  an  article  as 
the  following  inserted  in  the  treaty : — '  The  United  States 
give  peace  to  the  Cherokees,  but,  for  the  part  they  took  in  the 
late  war,  declare  them  to  be  but  tenants  at  will,  to  be  removed 
when  the  convenience  of  the  States,  within  whose  chartered 
limits  they  live,  shall  require  it '  ?  That  was  the  proper  time 
to  assume  such  a  possession.  But  it  was  not  thought  of,  nor 
would  our  forefathers  have  agreed  to  any  treaty  whose  ten- 
dency was  to  deprive  them  of  their  rights  and  their  country." 

Such  is  the  language  of  the  Indians:  their  assertions  arc 
true,  their  forebodings  inevitable.  From  whichever  side  wc 
consider  the  destinies  of  the  aborigines  of  North  America,  their 
calamities  appear  to  be  irremediable:  if  they  continue  barbar- 
ous, they  are  forced  to  retire ;  if  they  attempt  to  civilize  their 
manners,  the  contact  of  a  more  civilized  community  subjects 
them  to  oppression  and  destitution.  They  perish  if  they  con- 
tinue to  wander  from  waste  to  waste,  and  if  they  attempt  to 
settle  they  still  must  perish ;  the  assistance  of  Europeans  is 
necessary  to  instruct  them,  but  the  approach  of  Europeans  cor- 
rupts and  repels  them  into  savage  life ;  they  refuse  to  change 
their  habits  as  long  as  their  solitudes  are  their  own,  and  it  is 
too  late  to  change  them  when  they  are  constrained  to  submit. 

The  Spaniards  pursued  the  Indians  with  bloodhounds,  like 
wild  beasts ;  they  sacked  the  New  World  with  no  more  temper 
or  compassion  than  a  city  taken  by  storm;  but  destruction 
must  cease,  and  frenzy  be  stayed ;  the  remnant  of  the  Indian 
population  which  had  escaped  the  massacre  mixed  with  its  con- 
querors, and  adopted  in  the  end  their  religion  and  their  man- 
ners.fr  The  conduct  of  the  Americans  of  the  'United  States 
towards  the  aborigines  is  characterized,  on  the  other  hand,  by  a 
singular  attachment  to  the  formalities  of  law.    Provided  that 


b  The  honor  of  this  result  is,  however, 
hy  no  means  due  to  the  Spaniards.  If 
the  Indian  tribes  had  not  been  tillers  of 
the  ground  at  the  time  of  the  arrival  of 


the  Europeans,  they  would  unquestion- 
ably have  been  destroyed  in  south  as 
well  as  in  North  America. 


i 


i\ 


r/;  ^ 


360 


DE  TOCQtJEVILLE 


\! 


the  Indians  retain  their  barbarous  condition,  the  Americans 
take  no  part  in  their  affairs;  they  treat  them  as  independent 
nations,  and  do  not  possess  themselves  of  their  hunting  grounds 
without  a  treaty  of  purchase;  and  if  an  Indian  nation  hap- 
pens to  be  so  encroached  upon  as  to  be  unable  to  subsist  upon  its 
territory,  they  afford  it  brotherly  assistance  in  transporting  it 
to  a  grave  sufficiently  remote  from  the  land  of  its  fathers. 

The  Spaniards  were  unable  to  exterminate  the  Indian  race 
by  those  unparalleled  atrocities  which  brand  them  with  in- 
delible shame,  nor  did  they  even  succeed  in  wholly  depriving  it 
of  its  rights ;  but  the  Americans  of  the  United  States  have  ac- 
complished this  twofold  purpose  with  singular  felicity ;  tran- 
quilly, legally,  philanthropically,  without  shedding  blood,  and 
without  violating  a  single  great  principle  of  morality  in  the 
eyes  of  the  world.c  It  is  impossible  to  destroy  men  with  more 
respect  for  the  laws  of  humanity. 

[I  leave  this  chapter  wholly  unchanged,  for  it  has  always  appeared  to 
me  to  be  one  of  the  most  eloquent  and  touching  parts  of  this  book.  But 
it  has  ceased  to  be  prophetic;  the  destruction  of  the  Indian  race  in  the 
United  States  is  already  consummated.  In  1870  there  remained  but 
25,731  Indians  in  the  whole  territory  of  the  Union,  and  of  these  by  far 
the  largest  part  exist  in  California,  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Dakota,  and 
New  Mexico  and  Nevada.  In  New  England,  Pennsylvania,  and  New 
York  the  race  is  extinct ;  and  the  predictions  of  M.  de  Tocqueville  arc 
fulfilled. — Translator's  Note.] 


'i 


c  See,  amongst  other  documents,  the 
report  made  by  Mr.  Bell  in  the  name  of 
the  Committee  on  Indian  Affairs,  Feb- 
ruary 24,  1830,  in  which  is  most  logically 
established  and  most  learnedly  proved, 
that  "  the  fundamental  principle  that  the 
Indians  had  no  right  by  virtue  of  their 
ancient  possession  either  of  will  or 
sovereignty,  has  never  ,been  abandoned 
either  expressly  or  by  implication."  In 
perusing  this  report,  which  is  evidently 
drawn  up  by  an  experienced  hand,  one 


is  astonished  at  the  facility  with  which 
the  author  gets  rid  of  all  arguments 
founded  upon  reason  and  natural  right, 
which  he  designates  as  abstract  and  the- 
oretical principles.  The  more  I  contem- 
plate the  difference  between  civilized 
and  uncivilized  man  with  regard  to  the 
principles  of  justice,  the  more  I  ob- 
serve that  the  former  contests  the  jus- 
tice of  those  rights  which  the  latter 
simply  violates. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


361 


Situation  of  the  Black  Population  in  the  United 
States,  and  Dangers  with  Which  Its  Presence 
Threatens  the  Whites 

Why  it  is  more  difficult  to  abolish  slavery,  and  to  efface  all  vestiges  of 
it  amongst  the  moderns  than  it  was  amongst  the  ancients — In  the 
United  States  the  prejudices  of  the  Whites  against  the  Blacks  seem 
to  increase  in  proportion  as  slavery  is  abolished— Situation  of  the 
Negroes  in  the  Northern  and  Southern  States — Why  the  Americans 
abolish  slavery — Servitude,  which  debases  the  slave,  impoverishes 
the  master— Contrast  between  the  left  and  the  right  bank  of  the 
Ohio — To  what  attributable — The  Black  race,  as  well  as  slavery,  re- 
cedes towards  the  South— Explanation  of  this  fact— Difficulties  at- 
tendant upon  the  abolition  of  slavery  in  the  South — Dangers  to  come 
—General  anxiety— Foundation  of  a  Black  colony  in  Africa— Why 
the  Americans  of  the  South  increase  the  hardships  of  slavery,  whilst 
they  are  distressed  at  its  continuance. 

The  Indians  will  perish  in  the  same  isolated  condition  in 
which  they  have  lived ;  but  the  destiny  of  the  negroes  is  in  some 
measure  interwoven  with  that  of  the  Europeans.  These  two 
races  are  attached  to  each  other  without  intermingling,  and 
they  are  alike  unable  entirely  to  separate  or  to  combine.  The 
most  formidable  of  all  the  ills  which  threaten  the  future  exist- 
ence of  the  Union  arises  from  the  presence  of  a  black  popula- 
tion upon  its  territory ;  and  in  contemplating  the  cause  of  the 
present  embarrassments  or  of  the  future  dangers  of  the  United 
States,  the  observer  is  invariably  led  to  consider  this  as  a 
primary  fact. 

The  permanent  evils  to  which  mankind  is  subjected  are  usu- 
ally produced  by  the  vehement  or  the  increasing  efforts  of  men ; 
but  there  is  one  calamity  which  penetrated  furtively  into  the 
world,  and  which  was  at  first  scarcely  distinguishable  amidst 
the  ordinary  abuses  of  power ;  it  originated  with  an  individual 
whose  name  history  has  not  preserved ;  it  was  wafted  like  some 
accursed  germ  upon  a  portion  of  the  soil,  but  it  afterwards 
nurtured  itself,  grew  without  eflfort,  and  spreads  naturally 
with  the  society  to  which  it  belongs.  I  need  scarcely  add  that 
this  calamity  is  slavery.  Christianity  suppressed  slavery,  but 
the  Christians  of  the  sixteenth  century  re-established  it — as  an 
exception,  indeed,  to  their  social  system,  and  restricted  to  one  of 
the  races  of  mankind;  but  the  wound  thus  inflicted  upon  hu- 
manity, though  less  extensive,  was  at  the  same  time  rendered 
far  more  difficult  of  cure. 


I . 


M^^Pii^. 


362 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


It  is  important  to  make  an  accurate  distinction  between  sla- 
very itself  and  its  consequences.  The  immediate  evils  which 
are  produced  by  slavery  were  very  nearly  the  same  in  an- 
tiquity as  they  are  amongst  the  moderns ;  but  the  consequences 
of  these  evils  were  different.  The  slave,  amongst  the  ancients, 
belonged  to  the  same  race  as  his  master,  and  he  was  often  the 
superior  of  the  two  in  education  d  and  instruction.  Freedom 
was  the  only  distinction  between  them ;  and  when  freedom  was 
conferred  they  were  easily  confounded  together.  The  ancients, 
then,  had  a  very  simple  means  of  avoiding  slavery  and  its  evil 
consequences,  which  was  that  of  affranchisement;  and  they 
succeeded  as  soon  as  they  adopted  this  measure  generally.  Not 
but,  in  ancient  States,  the  vestiges  of  servitude  subsisted  for 
some  time  after  servitude  itself  was  abolished.  There  is  a 
natural  prejudice  which  prompts  men  to  despise  whomsoever 
has  been  their  inferior  long  after  he  is  become  their  equal ;  and 
the  real  inequality  which  is  produced  by  fortune  or  by  law  is 
always  succeeded  by  an  imaginary  inequality  which  is  im- 
planted in  the  manners  of  the  people.  Nevertheless,  this  sec- 
ondary consequence  of  slavery  was  limited  to  a  certain  term 
amongst  the  ancients,  for  the  freedman  bore  so  entire  a  re- 
semblance to  those  born  free,  that  it  soon  became  impossible  to 
distinguish  him  from  amongst  them. 

The  greatest  difficulty  in  antiquity  was  that  of  altering  the 
law ;  amongst  the  moderns  it  is  that  of  altering  the  manners ; 
and,  as  far  as  we  are  concerned,  the  real  obstacles  begin  where 
those  of  the  ancients  left  off.  This  arises  from  the  circum- 
stance that,  amongst  the  moderns,  the  abstract  and  transient 
fact  of  slavery  is  fatally  united  to  the  physical  and  permanent 
fact  of  color.  The  tradition  of  slavery  dishonors  the  race,  and 
the  peculiarity  of  the  race  perpetuates  the  tradition  of  slavery. 
No  African  has  ever  voluntarily  emigrated  to  the  shores  of  the 
New  World;  whence  it  must  be  inferred,  that  all  the  blacks 
who  are  now  to  be  found  in  that  hemisphere  are  either  slaves  or 
freedmen.  Thus  the  negro  transmits  the  eternal  mark  of  his 
ignominy  to  all  his  descendants;  and  although  the  law  may 
abolish  slavery,  God  alone  can  obliterate  the  traces  of  its  ex- 
istence. 


I 


d  It  is  well  known  that  several  of  the 
most  distinRuished  authors  of  antiquity, 
and  amonpst  them  ^sop  and  Terence, 
were,  or  had  been  slaves.    Slaves  were 


not  always  taken  from  barbarous  na- 
tions, and  the  chances  of  war  reduced 
highly  civilized  men  to  servitUvI.- 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


363 


The  modem  slave  differs  from  his  master  not  only  in  his  con- 
dition, but  in  his  origin.  You  may  set  the  negro  free,  but  you 
cannot  make  him  otherwise  than  an  alien  to  the  European. 
Nor  is  this  all ;  we  scarcely  acknowledge  the  common  features 
of  mankind  in  this  child  of  debasement  whom  slavery  has 
brought  amongst  us.  His  physiognomy  is  to  our  eyes  hideous, 
his  understanding  weak,  his  tastes  low ;  and  we  are  almost  in- 
clined to  look  upon  him  as  a  being  intermediate  between  man 
and  the  brutes.e  The  moderns,  then,  after  they  have  abolished 
slavery,  have  three  prejudices  to  contend  against,  which  are  less 
easy  to  attack  and  far  less  easy  to  conquer  than  the  mere  fact 
of  servitude:  the  prejudice  of  the  master,  the  prejudice  of  the 
race,  and  the  prejudice  of  color. 

It  is  difficult  for  us,  who  have  had  the  good  fortune  to  be  bom 
amongst  men  like  ourselves  by  nature,  and  equal  to  ourselves 
by  law,  to  conceive  the  irreconcilable  diflferences  which  separate 
the  negro  from  the  European  in  America.  But  we  may  derive 
some  faint  notion  of  them  from  analogy.  France  was  formerly 
a  country  in  which  numerous  distinctions  of  rank  existed,  that 
had  been  created  by  the  legislation.  Nothing  can  be  more  fic- 
titious than  a  purely  legal  inferiority ;  nothing  more  contrary 
to  the  instinct  of  mankind  than  these  permanent  divisions  which 
had  been  established  between  beings  evidently  similar.  Never- 
theless these  divisions  subsisted  for  ages ;  they  still  subsist  in 
many  places ;  and  on  all  sides  they  have  left  imaginary  vestiges, 
which  time  alone  can  eflface.  If  it  be  so  difficult  to  root  out  an 
inequality  which  solely  originates  in  the  law,  how  are  those 
distinctions  to  be  destroyed  which  seem  to  be  based  upon  the 
immutable  laws  of  Nature  herself  ?  When  I  remember  the  ex- 
treme difficulty  with  which  aristocratic  bodies,  of  whatever 
nature  they  may  be,  are  commingled  with  the  mass  of  the  peo- 
ple ;  and  the  exceed:"^  v:are  which  they  take  to  preserve  the 
ideal  boundaries  of  their  caste  inviolate,  I  despair  of  seeing  an 
aristocracy  disappear  which  is  founded  upon  visible  and  in- 
delible signs.  Those  who  hope  that  the  Europeans  will  ever 
mix  with  the  negroes,  appear  to  me  to  delude  themselves ;  and 
I  am  not  led  to  any  such  conclusion  by  my  own  reason,  or  by 
the  evidence  of  facts. 

Hitherto,  wherever  the  whites  have  been  the  most  powerful, 


1 

1  y.  VJ 


i)i 


e  To  induce  the  whites  to  abandon  the 
opinion  they  have  conceived  of  the 
moral  and  intellectual  inferiority  of  their 


former  slaves,  the  negroes  must  change  ; 
but  as  long  as  this  opinion  subsists,  to 
change  is  impossible. 


^s^aan 


>;<ft*i,"^!SJutf-:^.»»M 


364 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


if  1! 


% 


% 


% 


I! 


they  have  maintained  the  blacks  in  a  subordinate  or  a  servile 
position ;  wherever  the  negroes  have  been  strongest  they  have 
destroyed  the  whites ;  such  has  been  the  only  retribution  which 
has  ever  taken  place  between  the  two  races. 

I  see  that  in  a  certain  portion  of  the  territory  of  the  United 
States  at  the  present  day,  the  legal  barrier  which  separated  the 
two  races  is  tending  to  fall  away,  but  not  that  which  exists  in 
the  manners  of  the  country ;  slavery  recedes,  but  the  prejudice 
to  which  it  has  given  birth  remains  stationary.  Whosoever  has 
inhabited  the  United  States  must  have  perceived  that  in  those 
parts  of  the  Union  in  which  the  negroes  are  no  longer  slaves, 
they  have  in  no  wise  drawn  nearer  to  the  whites.  On  the  con- 
trary, the  prejudice  of  the  race  appears  to  be  stronger  in  the 
States  which  have  abolished  slavery,  than  in  those  where  it  still 
exists ;  and  nowhere  is  it  so  intolerant  as  in  those  States  where 
servitude  has  never  been  known. 

It  is  true,  that  in  the  North  of  the  Union,  marriages  may  be 
legally  contracted  between  negroes  and  whites;  but  public 
opinion  would  stigmatize  a  man  who  should  connect  himself 
with  a  negress  as  infamous,  and  it  would  be  difficult  to  meet 
with  a  single  instance  of  such  a  union.  The  electoral  franchise 
has  been  conferred  upon  the  negroes  in  almost  all  the  States 
in  which  slavery  has  been  abolished ;  but  if  they  come  forward 
to  vote,  their  lives  are  in  danger.  If  oppressed,  they  may  bring 
an  action  at  law,  but  they  will  find  none  but  whites  amongst 
their  judges ;  rnd  although  they  may  legally  serve  as  jurors, 
prejudice  repulses  them  from  that  office.  The  same  schools  do 
not  receive  the  child  of  the  black  and  of  the  European.  In  the 
theatres,  gold  cannot  procure  a  seat  for  the  servile  race  beside 
their  former  masters ;  in  the  hospitals  they  lie  apart ;  and  al- 
though they  are  allowed  to  invoke  the  same  Divinity  as  the 
whites,  it  must  be  at  a  diflferent  altar,  and  in  their  own  churches, 
with  their  own  clergy.  The  gates  of  Heaven  are  not  closed 
against  these  unhappy  beings;  but  their  inferiority  is  con- 
tinued to  the  very  confines  of  the  other  world ;  when  the  negro 
is  defunct,  his  bones  are  cast  aside,  and  the  distinction  of  condi- 
tion prevails  even  in  the  equality  of  death.  The  negro  is  free, 
but  he  can  share  neither  the  rights,  nor  the  pleasures,  nor  the 
labor,  nor  the  afflictions,  nor  the  tomb  of  him  whose  equal  he 
has  been  declared  to  be;  and  he  cannot  meet  him  upon  fair 
terms  in  life  or  in  death. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


3^5 


In  the  South,  where  slavery  still  exists,  the  negroes  are  less 
carefully  kept  apart ;  they  sometimes  share  the  labor  and  the 
recreations  of  the  whites ;  the  whites  consent  to  intermix  with 
them  to  a  certain  extent,  and  although  the  legislation  treats 
them  more  harshly,  the  habits  of  the  people  are  more  tolerant 
and  compassionate.  In  the  South  the  master  is  not  afraid  to 
raise  his  slave  to  his  own  standing,  because  he  knows  that  he 
can  in  a  moment  reduce  him  to  the  dust  at  pleasure.  In  the 
North  the  white  no  longer  distinctly  perceives  the  barrier  which 
separates  him  from  the  degraded  race,  and  he  shuns  the  negro 
with  the  more  pertinacity,  since  he  fears  lest  they  should  some 
day  be  confounded  together. 

Amongst  the  Americans  of  the  South,  nature  sometimes  reas- 
serts her  rights,  and  restores  a  transient  equality  between  the 
blacks  and  the  whites;  but  in  the  North  pride  restrains  the 
most  imperious  of  human  passions.  The  American  of  the 
Northern  States  would  perhaps  allow  the  negress  to  share  his 
licentious  pleasures,  if  the  laws  of  his  country  did  not  declare 
that  she  may  aspire  to  be  the  legitimate  partner  of  his  bed; 
but  he  recoils  with  horror  from  her  who  might  become  his  wife. 

Thus  it  is,  in  the  United  States,  that  the  prejudice  which  re- 
pels the  negroes  seems  to  increase  in  proportion  as  they  are 
emancipated,  and  inequality  is  sanctioned  by  the  manners 
whilst  it  is  effaced  from  the  laws  of  the  country.  But  if  the 
•  elative  position  of  the  two  races  which  inhabit  the  United 
States  is  such  as  I  have  described,  it  may  be  asked  why  the 
Americans  have  abolished  slavery  in  the  North  of  the  Union, 
why  they  maintain  it  in  the  South,  and  why  they  aggravate  its 
hardships  there  ?  The  answer  is  easily  given.  It  is  net  for  the 
good  of  the  negroes,  but  for  that  of  the  whites,  that  measures 
are  taken  to  abolish  slavery  in  the  United  States. 

The  first  negroes  were  imported  into  Virginia  about  the 
year  1621.^  In  America,  therefore,  as  well  as  in  the  rest  of  the 
globe,  slavery  originated  in  the  South.  Thence  it  spread  from 
one  settlement  to  another;  but  the  number  of  slaves  dimin- 
ished towards  the  Northern  States,  and  the  negro  population 
was  always  very  limited  in  New  England.? 


r    f\ 


\m 


!   ^ 


i 


HI 


/  See  Beverley's  "  History  of  Vir- 
ginia." See  also  in  Jefferson's  "  Me- 
moirs "  some  curious<details  concerning 
the  introduction  of  negroes  into  Vir- 
ginia, and  the  first  Act  which  prohibited 
the  importation  of  them  in  1778. 


fThe  number  of  slaves  was  less  con- 
erable  in  the  North,  but  the  advan- 
tages resulting  from  slavery  were  not 
more  contested  there  than  in  the  South. 
In  1740,  the  Legislature  of  the  State  of 
New  York  declared  that  the  direct  im- 


366 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


Mi! 


H 


■  I 


A  century  had  scarcely  elapsed  since  the  foundation  of  the 
colonies,  when  the  attention  of  the  planters  was  struck  by  the 
extraordinary  fact,  that  the  provinces  which  were  compara- 
tively destitute  of  slaves,  increased  in  population,  in  wealth,  and 
in  prosperity  more  rapidly  than  those  which  contained  the 
greatest  number  of  negroes.  In  the  former,  however,  the  in- 
habitants were  obliged  to  cultivate  the  soil  themselves,  or  by 
hired  laborers ;  in  the  latter  they  were  furnished  with  hands  for 
which  they  paid  no  wages;  yet  although  labor  and  expenses 
were  on  the  one  side,  and  ease  with  economy  on  the  other,  the 
former  were  in  possession  of  the  most  advantageous  system. 
This  consequence  seemed  to  be  the  more  difficult  to  explain, 
since  the  settlers,  who  all  belonged  to  the  same  European  race, 
had  the  same  habits,  the  same  civilization,  the  same  laws,  and 
their  shades  of  difference  were  extremely  slight. 

Time,  however,  continued  to  advance,  and  the  Anglo-Ameri- 
cans, spreading  beyond  the  coasts  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  pene- 
trated farther  and  farther  into  the  solitudes  of  the  West ;  they 
met  with  a  new  soil  and  an  unwonted  climate ;  the  obstacles 
which  opposed  them  were  of  the  most  various  character ;  their 
races  intermingled,  the  inhabitants  of  the  South  went  up 
towards  the  North,  those  of  the  North  descended  to  the  South ; 
but  in  the  midst  of  all  these  causes,  the  same  result  occurred  at 
every  step,  and  in  general,  the  colonies  in  which  there  were  no 
slaves  became  more  populous  and  more  rich  than  those  in 
which  slavery  flourished.  The  more  progress  was  made,  the 
more  was  it  shown  that  slavery,  which  is  so  cruel  to  the  slave, 
is  prejudicial  to  the  master. 

But  this  truth  was  most  satisfactorily  demonstrated  when 
civilization  reached  the  banks  of  the  Ohio.  The  stream  which 
the  Indians  had  distinguished  by  the  name  of  Ohio,  or  Beautiful 
River,  waters  one  of  the  most  magnificent  valleys  that  has 
ever  been  made  the  abode  of  man.  Undulating  lands  extend 
upon  both  shores  of  the  Ohio,  whose  soil  afifords  inexhaustible 
treasures  to  the  laborer ;  on  either  bank  the  air  is  wholesome 
and  the  climate  mild,  and  each  of  them  forms  the  extreme  fron- 


portation  of  slaves  oufirtit  to  be  encour- 
aged as  much  as  possible,  and  smuff- 
BlinpT  severely  punished  in  order  not  to 
discourfige  the  fair  trader.  (Kent's 
"  Commentaries,"  vol.  ii.  p.  206.)  Curi- 
ous researches,  by  Belknap,  upon  slavery 
in  New  England,  are  to  be  found  in  the 
"  Historical    Collection    of    Massachu- 


setts," vol.  iv.  p.  i()3.  It  appears  that 
negroes  were  introduced  there  in  1630, 
but  that  the  legislation  and  manners  of 
the  people  were  opposed  to  slavery  from 
the  first;  see  also,  in  the  same  work, 
the  manner  in  which  public  opinion,  and 
afterwards  the  laws,  finally  put  an  end 
to  slavery 


ri  lit  \ 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


367 


tier  of  a  vast  State :  That  which  follows  the  numerous  windings 
of  the  Ohio  upon  the  left  is  called  Kentucky,  that  upon  the  right 
bears  the  name  of  the  river.  These  two  States  only  differ  in  a 
single  respect ;  Kentucky  has  admitted  slavery,  but  the  State  of 
Ohio  has  prohibited  the  existence  of  slaves  within  its  borders.* 

Thus  the  traveller  who  floats  down  the  current  of  the  Ohio 
to  the  spot  where  that  river  falls  into  the  Mississippi,  may  be 
said  to  sail  between  liberty  and  servitude ;  and  a  transient  in- 
spection of  the  surrounding  objects  will  convince  him  as  to 
which  of  the  two  is  most  favorable  to  mankind.  Upon  the  left 
bank  of  the  stream  the  population  is  rare ;  from  time  to  time 
one  descries  a  troop  of  slaves  loitering  in  the  half-desert  fields ; 
the  primaeval  forest  recurs  at  every  turn ;  society  seems  to  be 
asleep,  man  to  be  idle,  and  nature  alone  oflFers  a  scene  of  activity 
and  of  life.  From  the  right  bank,  on  the  contrary,  a  confused 
hum  is  heard  which  proclaims  the  presence  of  industry ;  the 
fields  are  covered  with  abundant  harvests,  the  elegance  of  the 
dwellings  announces  the  taste  and  activity  of  the  laborer,  and 
man  appears  to  be  in  the  enjoyment  of  that  wealth  and  content- 
ment which  is  the  reward  of  labor.* 

The  State  of  Kentucky  was  founded  in  1775,  the  State  of 
Ohio  only  twelve  years  later;  but  twelve  years  are  more  in 
America  than  half  a  century  in  Europe,  and,  at  the  present  day, 
the  population  of  Ohio  exceeds  that  of  Kentucky  by  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  thousand  souls./  These  opposite  consequences 
of  slavery  and  freedom  may  readily  be  understood,  and  they 
suffice  to  explain  many  of  the  differences  which  we  remark  be- 
tween the  civilization  of  antiquity  and  that  of  our  own  time. 

Upon  the  left  bank  of  the  Ohio  labor  is  confounded  with  the 
idea  of  slavery,  upon  the  right  bank  it  is  identified  with  that  of 
prosperity  and  improvement;  on  the  one  side  it  is  degraded, 
on  the  other  it  is  honored ;  on  the  former  territory  no  white 
laborers  can  be  found,  for  they  would  be  afraid  of  assimilating 
themselves  to  the  negroes ;  on  the  latter  no  one  is  idle,  for  the 
white  population  extends  its  activity  and  its  intelligence  to  every 


h  Not  only  is  slavery  prohibited  in 
Ohio,  but  no  free  negroes  are  allowed 
to  enter  the  territory  of  that  State,  or 
to  hold  property  in  it.  See  the  Statutes 
of  Ohio. 

»  The  activity  of  Ohio  is  not  confined 
to  individuals,  but  the  undertakings  of 
the  State  are  surprisingly  great  ;  a  canal 
has  been  established  between  Lake  Erie 
and  the  Ohio,  by  means  of  which  the 
valley  of  the  Mississippi  communicates 


with  the  river  of  the  North,  and  the 
European  commodities  which  arrive  at 
New  York  may  be  forwarded  by  water 
to  New  Orleans  across  five  hundred 
leagues  of  continent. 

y  The  exact  numbers  given  by  the 
census  of  1830  were  :  Kentucky,  688,- 
844;  Ohio,  937,679.  [In  1890  the  popu- 
lation of  Ohio  was  3,672,316,  that  of  Ken- 
tucky, 1,858,635.1 


i 


,J 


i   } 


( 


M 


368 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


V 

.!•■ 


-1 


il    ( 


\  I 


>      I 


kind  of  employment.  Thus  the  men  whose  task  it  is  to  cultivate 
the  rich  soil  of  Kentucky  are  ignorant  and  lukewarm ;  whilst 
those  who  are  active  and  enlightened  either  do  nothing  or  pass 
over  into  the  State  of  Ohio,  where  they  may  work  without  dis- 
honor. 

It  is  true  that  in  Kentucky  the  planters  are  not  obliged  to  pay 
wages  to  the  slaves  whom  they  employ ;  but  they  derive  small 
profits  from  their  labor,  whilst  the  wages  paid  to  free  workmen 
would  be  returned  with  interest  in  the  value  of  their  services. 
The  free  workman  is  paid,  but  he  does  his  work  quicker  than  the 
slave,  and  rapidity  of  execution  is  one  of  the  great  elements  of 
economy.  The  white  sells  his  services,  but  they  are  only  pur- 
chased at  the  times  at  which  they  may  be  useful ;  the  black  can 
claim  no  remuneration  for  his  toil,  but  the  expense  of  his  main- 
tenance is  perpetual ;  he  must  be  supported  in  his  old  age  as 
well  as  in  the  prime  of  manhood,  in  his  profitless  infancy  as 
well  as  in  the  productive  years  of  youth.  Payment  must  equally 
be  made  in  order  to  obtain  the  services  of  either  class  of  men : 
the  free  workman  receives  his  wages  in  money,  the  slave  in  ed- 
ucation, in  food,  in  care,  and  in  clothing.  The  money  which  a 
master  spends  in  the  maintenance  of  his  slaves  goes  gradually 
and  in  detail,  so  that  it  is  scarcely  perceived ;  the  salary  of  the 
free  workman  is  paid  in  a  round  sum,  which  appears  only  to 
enrich  the  individual  who  receives  it,  but  in  the  end  the  slave 
has  cost  more  than  the  free  servant,  and  his  labor  is  less  pro- 
ductive.* 

The  influence  of  slavery  extends  still  further ;  it  aflfects  the 
character  of  the  master,  and  imparts  a  peculiar  tendency  to  his 
ideas  and  his  tastes.  Upon  both  banks  of  the  Ohio,  the  char- 
acter of  the  inhabitants  is  enterprising  and  energetic ;  but  this 
vigor  is  very  differently  exercised  in  the  two  States.  The  white 
inhabitant  of  Ohio,  who  is  obliged  to  subsist  by  his  own  exer- 
tions, regards  temporal  prosperity  as  the  principal  aim  of  his 


*  Independently  of  these  causes,  which, 
wherever  free  workmen  abound,  render 
their  labor  more  productive  and  more 
economical  than  that  of  slaves,  another 
cause  may  be  pointed  out  which  is 
peculiar  to  the  United  States  :  the 
suRar-cane  has  hitherto  been  cultivated 
with  success  only  upon  the  banks  of  the 
Mississippi,  near  the  mouth  of  that  river 
in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  In  Louisiana 
the  cultivation  of  the  sugar-cane  is  ex- 
ceedingly lucrative,  and  nowhere  does 
a  laborer  earn  so  much  by  his  work, 
and,  as  there  is  always  a  certain  rela- 


tion between  the  cost  of  production  .nnd 
the  value  of  the  produce,  the  price  of 
slaves  is  very  high  in  Louisiana.  But 
Louisiana  is  one  of  the  confederated 
States,  and  slaves  may  be  carried  thither 
from  all  parts  of  the  Union  ;  the  price 
given  for  slaves  in  New  Orleans  conie- 
duently  raises  the  value  of  slaves  in  nil 
the  other  markets.  The  consequence  of 
this  is,  that  in  the  countries  where  the 
land  is  less  productive,  the  cost  of  sl.Tve 
labor  is  still  very  considerable,  which 
gives  an  additional  advantage  to  the 
competition  of  free  labor. 


DEMOCRACY    IN  AMERICA 


369 


existence ;  and  as  the  country  which  he  occupies  presents  inex- 
haustible resources  to  his  industry  and  ever-varying  lures  to  his 
activity,  his  acquisitive  ardor  surpasses  f' .  ordinary  limits  of 
human  cupidity :  he  is  tormented  by  the  jire  of  wealth,  and 
he  boldly  enters  upon  every  path  which  fortune  opens  to  him ; 
he  becomes  a  sailor,  a  pioneer,  an  artisan,  or  a  laborer  with  the 
same  indifference,  and  he  supports,  with  equal  constancy,  the 
fatigues  and  tlic  dangers  incidental  to  these  various  professions ; 
the  resources  of  his  intelligence  arc  astonishing,  and  his  avidity 
in  the  pursuit  of  gain  amounts  to  a  species  of  heroism. 

But  the  Kentuckian  scorns  not  only  labor,  but  all  the  under- 
takings which  labor  promotes ;  as  he  lives  in  an  idle  independ- 
ence, his  tastes  arc  those  of  an  idle  man ;  money  loses  a  portion 
of  its  value  in  his  eyes  ;  he  covets  wealth  much  less  than  pleasure 
and  excitement ;  and  the  energy  which  his  neighbor  devotes  to 
gain,  turns  with  him  to  a  passionate  love  of  field  sports  and 
military  exercises;  he  delights  in  violent  bodily  exertion,  he  is 
familiar  with  the  use  of  arms,  and  is  accustomed  from  a  very 
early  age  to  expose  his  life  in  single  combat.  Thus  slavery  not 
only  prevents  the  whites  from  becoming  opulent,  but  even  from 
desiring  to  become  so. 

As  the  same  causes  have  been  continually  producing  opposite 
effects  for  the  last  two  centuries  in  the  British  colonies  of  North 
America,  they  have  established  a  very  striking  difference  be- 
tween the  commercial  capacity  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  South 
and  those  of  the  North.  At  the  present  day  it  is  only  the  North- 
ern States  which  are  in  possession  of  shipping,  manufactures, 
railroads,  and  canals.  This  difference  is  perceptible  not  only 
in  comparing  the  North  with  the  South,  but  in  comparing  the 
several  Southern  States.  Almost  all  the  individuals  who  carry 
on  commercial  operations,  or  who  endeavor  to  turn  slave  labor 
to  account  in  the  most  Southern  districts  of  the  Union,  have 
emigrated  from  the  North.  The  natives  of  the  Northern  States 
are  constantly  spreading  over  that  portion  of  the  American  ter- 
ritory where  they  have  less  to  fear  from  competition ;  they 
discover  resources  there  which  escaped  the  notice  of  the  inhabi- 
tants ;  and,  as  they  comply  with  a  system  which  they  do  not  ap- 
prove, they  succeed  in  turning  it  to  better  advantage  than  those 
who  first  founded  and  who  still  maintain  it. 

Were  I  inclined  to  continue  this  parallel,  I  could  easily  prove 
that  almost  all  the  differences  which  may  be  remarked  between 
Vol.  I. — 24 


hi 
Ik 


{^ 


•)| 


ii 


370 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


E 


!i  ;  fi 


1,1 


I  1 


T    i 


the  characters  of  the  Americans  in  tlie  Southern  and  in  the 
Northern  States  have  originated  in  slavery  ;  but  this  would  di- 
vert me  from  my  subject,  and  my  present  intention  is  not  to 
point  out  all  the  consequences  of  servitude,  but  those  effects 
which  it  has  produced  upon  the  prosperity  of  the  countries 
which  have  admitted  it. 

The  influence  of  slavery  upon  the  production  of  wealth  must 
have  been  very  imperfectly  known  in  antiquity,  as  slavery  then 
obtained  throughout  the  civilized  world ;  and  the  nations  which 
were  unacquainted  with  it  were  barbarous.  And  indeed  Chris- 
tianity only  abolished  slavery  by  advocating  the  claims  of  the 
slave ;  at  the  present  time  it  may  be  attacked  in  the  name  of 
the  master,  and,  upon  thi."  point,  interest  is  reconciled  with  mor- 
ality. 

As  these  truths  became  apparent  in  the  United  States,  slavery 
receded  before  the  progress  of  experience.  Servitude  had  begun 
in  the  South,  and  had  thence  spread  towards  the  North ;  but 
it  now  retires  again.  Freedom,  which  sta«-ted  from  the  North, 
now  descends  uninterruptedly  towards  t!ie  South.  Amongst 
the  great  States,  Pennsylvania  now  constitutes  the  extreme 
limit  of  slavery  to  the  North :  but  even  within  those  Hmits  the 
slave  system  is  shaken :  Maryland,  which  is  immediately  below 
Pennsylvania,  is  preparing  for  its  abolition;  and  Virginia, 
which  comes  next  to  Maryland,  is  already  discussing  its  utility 
and  its  dangers./ 

No  great  change  takes  phce  in  human  institutions  without 
involving  amongst  its  causes  ine  law  of  inheritance.  When  the 
law  of  primogeniture  obtained  in  the  South,  each  family  was 
represented  by  a  wealthy  individual,  who  was  neither  compelled 
nor  induced  to  labor ;  and  he  was  surrounded,  as  by  parasitic 
plants,  by  the  other  members  of  his  family  who  were  then  ex- 
cluded by  law  from  sharing  the  common  inheritance,  and  who 
led  the  same  kind  of  life  as  himself.  The  very  same  thing  then 
occurred  in  all  the  families  of  the  South  as  still  happens  in  the 
wealthy  families  of  some  countries  in  Europe,  namely,  that  the 
younger  sons  remain  in  the  same  state  of  idleness  as  their  elder 


/  A  peculiar  reason  contributes  to  de- 
tach tne  two  last-mentioned  States  from 
the  cause  of  slavery.  The  former  wealth 
of  this  part  of  the  Union  was  principally 
derived  from  the  cultivation  of  tobacco. 
This  cultivation  is  specially  carried  on 
by  slaves  ;  but  within  the  last  few  ye.irs 
the  market-price  of  tobacco  has  dimin- 
ished, whilst  the  value  of  the  slaves  re- 


mains the  same.  Thus  the  ratio  be- 
tween the  cost  of  production  and  the 
value  of  the  produce  is  changed.  Tlu- 
natives  of  Maryland  and  Virginia  are 
therefore  more  disposed  than  they  were 
thirty  years  aRO,  to  pive  up  slave  labor 
in  the  cultivation  of  tob.icco,  or  to  pive 
up  slavery  and  tobacco  at  the  same  time. 


!•«.  1. 


DEMOCRACY   IN    A.    i.RlCA 


371 


■ole 
bv 

vva 


brother,  without  being  as  rich  as  he  is.  This  itkntlca*  '  l» 
seems  to  be  produced  in  Europe  and  in  America  by  v 
analogous  causes.  In  the  South  of  the  United  States  the  . 
race  of  whites  formed  an  aristocratic  body,  which  was  hea<i 
a  certain  number  of  privileged  individuals,  whose  wealth 
permanent,  and  whose  leisure  was  hereditary.  These  leaders  of 
the  American  nobility  kept  alive  the  traditional  prejudices  of 
the  white  race  in  the  body  of  which  they  were  the  representa- 
tives, and  maintained  the  honor  of  inactive  life.  This  aristoc- 
racy contained  many  who  were  poor,  but  none  who  would 
work ;  its  members  preferred  want  to  labor,  consequently  no 
competition  was  set  on  foot  against  negro  laborers  and  slaves, 
and,  whatever  opinion  might  be  entertained  as  to  the  utility  of 
their  efforts,  it  was  indispensable  to  employ  them,  since  there 
was  no  one  else  to  work. 

No  sooner  was  the  law  of  primogeniture  abolished  than 
fortunes  began  to  diminish,  and  all  the  families  of  the  country 
were  simultaneously  reduced  to  a  state  in  which  labor  became 
necessary  to  procure  the  means  of  subsistence :  several  of  them 
have  since  entirely  disappeared,  and  all  of  them  learned  to  look 
forward  to  the  time  at  which  it  would  be  necessary  for  everyone 
to  provide  for  his  own  wants.  Wealthy  individuals  are  still  to 
be  met  with,  but  they  no  longer  constitute  a  compact  and  he- 
reditary body,  nor  have  they  been  able  to  adopt  a  line  of  conduct 
in  which  they  could  persevere,  and  which  they  could  infuse  into 
all  ranks  of  society.  The  prejudice  which  stigmatized  labor 
was  in  the  first  place  abandoned  by  common  consent ;  the  num- 
ber of  needy  men  was  increased,  and  the  needy  were  allowed 
to  gain  a  laborious  subsistence  without  blushing  for  their  ex- 
ertions. Thus  one  of  the  most  immediate  consequences  of  the 
partible  quality  of  estates  has  been  to  create  a  class  of  free 
laborers.  As  soon  as  a  competition  was  set  on  foot  between 
the  free  laborer  and  the  slave,  the  inferiority  of  the  latter  became 
manifest,  and  slavery  was  attacked  in  its  fundamental  principle, 
which  is  the  interest  of  the  master. 

As  slavery  recedes,  the  black  population  follows  its  retro- 
grade course,  and  returns  with  it  towards  those  tropical  regions 
from  which  it  originally  came.  However  singular  this  fact  may 
at  first  appear  to  be,  it  may  readily  be  explained.  Although  the 
Americans  abolish  the  principle  of  slavery,  they  do  not  set  their 
slaves  free.    To  illustrate  this  remark,  I  will  quote  the  example 


!U 


i 


4 


I.' 


.   ! 


37» 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


of  the  State  of  New  York.  In  1788,  the  State  of  New  York  pro- 
hibited the  sale  of  slaves  within  its  limits,  which  was  an  indirect 
method  of  prohibiting  the  importation  of  blacks.  Thencefor- 
ward the  number  of  negroes  could  only  increase  according  to 
the  ratio  of  the  natural  increase  of  population.  But  eight  years 
later  a  more  decisive  measure  was  taken,  and  it  was  enacted  that 
all  children  born  of  slave  parents  after  July  4,  1799,  should 
be  free.  No  increase  could  then  take  place,  and  although  slaves 
still  existed,  slavery  might  be  said  to  be  abolished. 

From  the  time  at  which  a  Northern  State  prohibited  the  im- 
portation of  slaves,  no  slaves  were  brought  from  the  South  to 
be  sold  in  its  markets.  On  the  other  hand,  as  the  sale  of  slaves 
was  forbidden  in  that  State,  an  owner  was  no  longer  able  to  get 
rid  of  his  slave  (who  thus  became  a  burdensome  possession) 
otherwise  than  by  transporting  him  to  the  South.  But  when  a 
Northern  State  declared  that  the  son  of  the  slave  should  be  born 
free,  the  slave  lost  a  large  portion  of  his  market  value,  since  his 
posterity  was  no  longer  included  in  the  bargain,  and  the  owner 
had  then  a  strong  interest  in  transporting  him  to  the  South. 
Thus  the  same  law  prevents  the  slaves  of  the  South  from  coming 
to  the  Northern  States,  and  drives  those  of  the  North  to  the 
South. 

The  want  of  free  hands  is  felt  in  a  State  in  proportion  as  the 
number  of  slaves  decreases.  But  in  proportion  as  labor  is  per- 
formed by  free  hands,  slave  labor  becomes  less  productive ;  and 
the  slave  is  then  a  useless  or  onerous  possession,  whom  it  is  im- 
portant to  export  to  those  Southern  States  where  the  same  com- 
petition is  not  to  be  feared.  Thus  the  abolition  of  slavery  does 
not  set  the  slave  free,  but  it  merely  transfers  him  from  one  mas- 
ter to  another,  and  from  the  North  to  the  South. 

The  emancipated  negroes,  and  those  born  after  the  abolition 
of  slavery,  do  not,  indeed,  migrate  from  the  North  to  the  South ; 
but  their  situation  with  regard  to  the  Europeans  is  not  unlike 
that  of  the  aborigines  of  America ;  they  remain  half  civilized, 
and  deprived  of  their  rights  in  the  midst  of  a  population  which 
is  far  superior  to  them  in  wealth  and  in  knowledge ;  where  they 
are  exposed  to  the  tyranny  of  the  laws  »t  and  the  intolerance  of 
the  people.    On  some  accounts  they  are  still  more  to  be  pitied 


m  The  States  in  which  slavery  is  abol- 
ished usually  do  what  they  can  to  render 
their  territory  disaRreeable  to  the  ne- 
groes as  a  place  of  residence  ;  and  as  a 


kind  of  emulation  exists  between  the 
different  States  in  this  respect,  the  un- 
happy blacks  can  only  choose  the  least 
of  the  evils  which  beset  them. 


w 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


$1$ 


than  the  Indians,  since  they  are  haunted  by  the  reminiscence  of 
slavery,  and  they  cannot  claim  possession  of  a  single  portion  of 
the  soil :  many  of  them  perish  miserably ,«  and  the  rest  congre- 
gate in  the  great  towns,  where  they  perform  the  meanest  offices, 
and  lead  a  wretched  and  precarious  existence. 

But  even  if  the  number  of  negroes  continued  to  increase  as 
rapidly  as  when  they  were  still  in  a  state  of  slavery,  as  the  num- 
ber of  whites  augments  with  twofold  rapidity  since  the  abolition 
of  slavery,  the  blacks  would  soon  be,  as  it  were,  lost  in  the  midst 
of  a  strange  population. 

A  district  which  is  cultivated  by  slaves  is  in  general  more 
scantily  peopled  than  a  district  cultivated  by  free  labor :  more- 
over, America  is  still  a  new  country,  and  a  State  is  therefore 
not  half  peopled  at  the  time  when  it  abolishes  slavery.  No 
sooner  is  an  end  put  to  slavery  than  the  want  of  free  labor  is 
felt,  and  a  crowd  of  enterprising  adventurers  immediately  arrive 
from  all  parts  of  the  country,  who  hasten  to  profit  by  the  fresh 
resources  which  are  then  opened  to  industry.  The  soil  is  soon 
divided  amongst  them,  and  a  family  of  white  settlers  takes  pos- 
session of  each  tract  of  country.  Besides  which,  F.uropcan  emi- 
gration is  exclusively  directed  to  the  free  States;  for  what 
would  be  the  fate  of  a  poor  emigrant  who  crosses  the  Atlantic 
in  search  of  ease  and  happiness  if  he  were  to  land  in  a  country 
where  labor  is  stigmatized  as  degrading? 

Thus  the  white  population  grows  by  its  natural  increase,  and 
at  the  same  time  by  the  immense  influx  of  emigrants ;  whilst  the 
black  population  receives  no  emigrants,  and  is  upon  its  decline. 
The  proportion  which  existed  between  the  two  races  is  soon  in- 
verted. The  negroes  constitute  a  scanty  remnant,  a  poor  *ribe 
of  vagrants,  which  is  lost  in  the  midst  of  an  immense  people  in 
full  possession  of  the  land ;  and  the  presence  of  the  blacks  is 
only  marked  by  the  injustice  and  the  hardships  of  which  they 
are  the  unhappy  victims. 

In  several  of  the  Western  States  the  negro  race  never  made 
its  appearance,  and  in  all  the  Northern  States  it  is  rapidly  de- 
clining. Thus  the  great  question  of  its  future  condition  is  con- 
fined within  a  narrow  circle,  where  it  becomes  less  formidable, 
though  not  more  easy  of  solution. 


n  There  is  a  verj'  great  difference  be- 
tween the  mortality  of  the  blacks  and  of 
the  whites  in  the  States  in  which  slavery 
is  abolished;  from  1820  to  1831  only  one 
out  of  forty-two  individuals  of  the  white 
population  diet  ir    Philadelphia  ;  but 


one  negro  out  of  twenty-one  individuals 
of  the  black  population  died  in  the  same 
space  of  time.  The  mortality  is  by  no 
means  so  frreat  amonest  the  negroes 
who  are  still  slaves.  (See  Emmerson's 
"  Medical  Statistics,"  p.  iS.) 


!/l 


I) 


') 


V 

1 


374 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


<i  1 


The  more  we  descend  towards  the  South,  the  more  difficult 
does  it  become  to  aboHsh  slavery  with  advantage:  and  this 
arises  from  several  physical  causes  which  it  is  important  to 
point  out. 

The  first  of  these  causes  is  the  climate ;  it  is  well  known  that 
in  proportion  as  Europeans  approach  the  tropics  they  suffer 
more  from  labor.  Many  of  the  Americans  even  assert  that  with- 
in a  certain  latitude  the  exertions  which  a  negro  can  make  with- 
out danger  are  fatal  to  them ;  o  but  I  do  not  think  that  this  opin- 
ion, which  is  so  favorable  to  the  indolence  of  the  inhabitants  o£ 
southern  regions,  is  confirmed  by  experience.  The  southern 
parts  of  the  Union  are  not  hotter  than  the  South  of  Italy  and  of 
Spain ;  p  and  it  may  be  asked  why  the  European  cannot  work 
as  well  there  as  in  the  two  latter  countries.  If  slavery  has  been 
abolished  in  Italy  and  in  Spain  without  causing  the  destruction 
of  the  masters,  why  should  not  the  same  thing  take  place  in  the 
Union  ?  I  cannot  believe  that  nature  has  prohibited  the  Euro- 
peans in  Georgia  and  the  Floridas,  under  pain  of  death,  from 
raising  the  means  of  subsistence  from  the  soil,  but  their  labor 
would  unquestionably  be  more  irksome  and  less  productive 
to  them  than  to  the  inhabitants  of  New  England.  As  the  free 
workman  thus  loses  a  portion  of  his  superiority  over  the  slave 
in  the  Southern  States,  there  are  fewer  inducements  to  abolish 
slavery. 

All  the  plants  of  Europe  grow  in  the  northern  parts  of  the 
Union ;  the  South  has  special  productions  of  its  own.  It  has 
been  observed  that  slave  labor  is  a  very  expensive  method  of 
cultivating  corn.  The  farmer  of  corn  land  in  a  country  where 
slavery  is  unknown  habitually  retains  a  small  number  of  labor- 
ers in  his  service,  and  at  seed-time  and  harvest  he  hires  several 
additional  hands,  who  only  live  at  his  cost  for  a  short  period. 
But  the  agriculturist  in  a  slave  State  is  obliged  to  keep  a  large 
number  of  slaves  the  whole  year  round,  in  order  to  sow  his 
fields  and  to  gather  in  his  crops,  although  their  services  are  only 


I 


_  0  This  is  true  of  the  spots  in  which 
rice  is  cultivated  ;  rice-ground^,,  which 
are  unwholesome  in  all  countries,  are 
particularly  dangerous  in  those  regions 
which  are  exposed  to  the  beams  of  a 
tropical  sun.  Europeans  would  not  find 
it  easy  to  cultivate  the  soil  in  that  part 
of  the  New  World  if  it  must  be  neces- 
sarily be  made  to  produce  rice  ;  but 
may  they  not  subsist  without  rice- 
grounds  ? 
p  These  States  are  nearer  to  the  equa- 


tor than  Italy  and  Spain,  but  the  tem- 
perature of  the  continent  of  America  is 
very  much  lower  than  that  of  Europe. 

The  Spanish  Government  formerly 
caused  a  certain  number  of  peasants 
from  the  Acores  to  be  transported  into 
a  district  of  Louisiana  called  Attakapas, 
\>y  way  of  experiment.  These  settlers 
still  cultivate  the  soil  without  the  as- 
sistance of  slaves,  but  their  induslrv  is 
so  languid  as  scarcely  to  supply  their 
most  necessary  wants. 


f  Kl '  . 


I  ^< 


T      ■< 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


375 


required  for  a  few  weeks ;  but  slaves  are  unable  to  wait  till  they 
are  hired,  and  to  subsist  by  their  own  labor  in  the  mean  time 
like  free  laborers ;  in  order  to  have  their  services  they  must  be 
bought.  Slavery,  independently  of  its  general  disadvantages, 
is  therefore  still  more  inapplicable  to  countries  in  which  corn  is 
cultivated  than  to  those  which  produce  crops  of  a  different  kind. 
The  cultivation  of  tobacco,  of  cotton,  and  especially  of  the 
sugar-cane,  demands,  on  the  other  hand,  unremitting  attention : 
and  women  and  children  are  employed  in  it,  whose  services  are 
of  but  little  use  in  the  cultivation  of  wheat.  Thus  slavery  is 
naturally  more  fitted  to  the  countries  from  which  these  produc- 
tions are  derived.  Tobacco,  cotton,  and  the  sugar-cane  are  ex- 
clusively grown  in  the  South,  and  they  form  one  of  the  prin- 
cipal sources  of  the  wealth  of  those  States.  If  slavery  were 
abolished,  the  inhabitants  of  the  South  would  be  constrained  to 
adopt  one  of  two  alternatives :  they  must  either  change  their 
system  of  cultivation,  and  then  they  would  come  into  competi- 
tion with  the  more  active  and  more  experienced  inhabitants  of 
the  North ;  or,  if  they  continued  to  cultivate  the  same  produce 
without  slave  labor,  they  would  have  to  support  the  competition 
of  the  other  States  of  the  South,  which  might  still  retain  their 
slaves.  Thus,  peculiar  reasons  for  maintaining  slavery  exist  in 
the  South  which  do  not  operate  in  the  North. 

But  there  is  yet  another  motive  which  is  more  cogent  than 
all  the  others:  the  South  might  indeed,  rigorously  speaking, 
abolish  slavery ;  but  how  should  it  rid  its  territory  of  the  black 
population  ?  Slaves  and  slavery  are  driven  from  the  North  by 
the  same  law,  but  this  twofold  result  cannot  be  hoped  for  in  the 
South. 

The  arguments  which  I  have  adduced  to  show  that  slavery 
is  more  natural  and  more  advantageous  in  the  South  than  in  the 
North,  sufficiently  prove  that  the  number  of  slaves  must  be  far 
greater  in  the  former  districts.  It  was  to  the  southern  settle- 
ments that  the  first  Africans  were  brought,  and  it  is  there  that 
the  greatest  number  of  them  have  always  been  imported.  As 
we  advance  towards  the  South,  the  prejudice  which  sanctions 
idleness  increases  in  power.  In  the  States  nearest  to  the  tropics 
there  is  not  a  single  white  laborer;  the  negroes  are  conse- 
quently much  more  numerous  in  the  South  than  in  the  North. 
And,  as  I  have  already  observed,  this  disproportion  increases 
daily,  since  the  negroes  are  transferred  to  one  part  of  the  Union 


,1 


i 


« 


ii 


376 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


,'      tij) 


*ii    1 


as  soon  as  slavery  is  abolished  in  the  other.  Thus  the  black 
population  augments  in  the  South,  not  only  by  its  natural  fe- 
cundity, but  by  the  compulsory  emigration  of  the  negroes  from 
the  North ;  and  the  African  race  has  causes  of  increase  in  the 
South  very  analogous  to  those  which  so  powerfully  accelerate 
the  growth  of  the  European  race  in  the  North. 

In  the  State  of  Maine  there  is  one  negro  in  300  inhabitants ; 
in  Massachusetts,  one  in  100;  in  New  York,  two  in  100;  in 
Pennsylvania,  three  in  the  same  number ;  in  Maryland,  thirty- 
four;  in  Virginia,  forty-two;  and  lastly,  in  South  Carolina 9 
fifty-five  per  cent.  Such  was  the  proportion  of  the  black  popu- 
lation to  the  whites  in  the  year  1830.  But  this  proportion  is 
perpetually  changing,  as  it  constantly  decreases  in  the  North 
and  augments  in  the  South. 

It  is  evident  that  the  most  Southern  States  of  the  Union  can- 
not abolish  slavery  without  incurring  very  great  dangers,  which 
the  North  had  no  reason  to  apprehend  when  it  emancipated  its 
black  population.  We  have  already  shown  the  system  by  which 
the  Northern  States  secure  the  transition  from  slavery  to  free- 
dom, by  keeping  the  present  generation  in  chains,  and  setting 
their  descendants  free ;  by  this  means  the  negroes  are  gradually 
introduced  into  society ;  and  whilst  the  men  who  might  abuse 
their  freedom  are  kept  in  a  state  of  servitude,  those  who  are 
emancipated  may  learn  the  art  of  being  free  before  they  be- 
come their  own  masters.  But  it  would  be  difficult  to  apply  this 
method  in  the  South.  To  declare  that  all  the  negroes  born  after 
a  certain  period  shall  be  free,  is  to  introduce  the  principle  and 
the  notion  of  liberty  into  the  heart  of  slavery ;  the  blacks  whom 
the  law  thus  maintains  in  a  state  of  slavery  from  which  their 
children  are  delivered,  are  astonished  at  so  unequal  a  fate,  and 
their  astonishment  is  only  the  prelude  to  their  impatience  and 
irritation.  Thenceforward  slavery  loses,  in  their  eyes,  that  kind 
of  moral  power  which  it  derived  from  time  and  habit ;  it  is  re- 
duced to  a  mere  palpable  abuse  of  force.    The  Northern  States 


ill;    /  ' 


(/We  find  it  asserted  in  an  American 
work,  entitled  "  Letters  on  the  Coloniza- 
tion Society,"  by  Mr.  Carey,  1833, 
"  That  for  the  last  forty  years  the  black 
race  has  increased  more  rapidly  than 
the  white  race  in  the  State  of  South 
Carolina  ;  and  that  if  we  take  the  aver- 
age population  of  the  five  States  of  the 
South  mto  which  slaves  were  first  intro- 
duced, viz.,  Maryland,  Virginia.  South 
Carolina,  North  Carolina,  and  Georgia, 
we  shall  find  that  from  1790  to  1830  the 


whites  have  augmented  in  the  propor- 
tion of  80  to  100,  and  the  blacks  in  that 
of  112  to  100." 

In  the  United  States,  in  1830,  the 
population  of  the  two  races  stood  as  fol- 
lows:— 

States  where  slavery  is  abolished,  6,- 
S^5<434  whites  ;  120,520  blacks.  Slave 
States,  3,960,814  whites  ;  2,208,102  blacks. 
[In  1890  the  United  States  contained  a 
population  of  54,983,890  whites,  and 
7,638,360  negroes.]  , 


Hi! 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


377 


Jiad  nothing  to  fear  from  the  contrast,  because  in  them  the 
blacks  were  few  in  number,  and  the  white  population  was  very 
considerable.  But  if  this  faint  dawn  of  freedom  were  to  show 
two  millions  of  men  their  true  position,  the  oppressors  would 
have  reason  to  tremble.  After  having  aflfranchised  the  children 
of  their  slaves  the  Europeans  of  the  Southern  States  would  very 
shortly  be  obliged  to  extend  the  same  benefit  to  the  whole  black 
population. 

In  the  North,  as  I  have  already  remarked,  a  twofold  migra- 
tion ensues  upon  the  abolition  of  slavery,  or  even  precedes  that 
event  when  circumstances  have  rendered  it  probable ;  the  slaves 
quit  the  country  to  be  transported  southwards ;  and  the  whites 
of  the  Northern  States,  as  well  as  the  emigrants  from  Europe, 
hasten  to  fill  up  their  place.  But  these  two  causes  cannot 
operate  in  the  same  manner  in  the  Southern  States.  On  the 
one  hand,  the  mass  of  slaves  is  too  great  for  any  expectation  of 
their  ever  being  removed  from  the  country  to  be  entertained ; 
and  on  the  other  hand,  the  Europeans  and  Anglo-Americans 
of  the  North  are  afraid  to  come  to  inhabit  a  country  in  which 
labor  has  not  yet  been  reinstated  in  its  rightful  honors.  Be- 
sides, they  very  justly  look  upon  the  States  in  which  the  pro- 
portion of  the  negroes  equals  or  exceeds  that  of  the  whites,  as 
exposed  to  very  great  dangers ;  and  they  refrain  from  turning 
their  activity  in  that  direction. 

Thus  the  inhabitants  of  the  South  would  not  be  able,  like 
their  Northern  countrymen,  to  initiate  the  slaves  gradually  into 
u.  state  of  freedom  by  abolishing  slavery ;  they  have  no  means 
of  perceptibly  diminishing  the  black  population,  and  they  would 
remain  unsupported  to  repress  its  excesses.  So  that  in  the 
course  of  a  few  years,  a  great  people  of  free  negroes  would  exist 
in  the  heart  of  a  white  nation  of  equal  size. 

The  same  abuses  of  power  which  still  maintain  slavery, 
would  then  become  the  source  of  the  most  alarming  perils 
which  the  white  population  of  the  South  might  have  to  ap- 
prehend. At  the  present  time  the  descendants  of  the  Eu- 
ropeans are  the  sole  owners  of  the  land ;  the  absolute  masters 
of  all  labor ;  and  the  only  persons  who  are  possessed  of  wealth, 
knowledge,  and  arms.  The  black  is  destitute  of  all  these  ad- 
vantages, but  he  subsists  without  them  because  he  is  a  slave. 
If  he  were  free,  and  obliged  to  provide  for  his  own  subsistence, 
would  it  be  possible  for  him  to  remain  without  these  things 


f 


ml 


I'll 


/  \i  1 


i 


'in 


I  .■  .1 


'I 


w 


'I- 


hi 


»M  ! 


378 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


and  to  support  life?  Or  would  not  the  very  instruments  of 
the  present  superiority  of  the  white,  whilst  slavery  exists,  ex- 
pose him  to  a  thousand  dangers  if  it  were  abolished  ? 

As  long  as  the  negro  remains  a  slave,  he  may  be  kept  in  a 
condition  not  very  far  removed  from  that  of  the  brutes;  but, 
with  his  liberty,  he  cannot  but  acquire  a  degree  of  instruction 
which  will  enable  him  to  appreciate  his  misfortunes,  and  to 
discern  a  remedy  for  them.  Moreover,  there  exists  a  singular 
principle  of  relative  justice  which  is  very  firmly  implanted  in 
the  human  heart.  Men  are  much  more  forcibly  struck  by 
those  inequalities  which  exist  within  the  circle  of  the  same 
class,  than  with  those  which  may  be  remarked  between  dif- 
ferent classes.  It  is  more  easy  for  them  to  admit  slavery, 
than  to  allow  several  millions  of  citizens  to  exist  under  a  load 
of  eternal  infamy  and  hereditary  wretchedness.  In  the  North 
the  population  of  freed  negroes  feels  these  hardships  and  re- 
sents these  indignities;  but  its  numbers  and  its  powers  are 
small,  whilst  in  the  South  it  would  be  numerous  and  strong. 

As  soon  as  it  is  admitted  that  the  whites  and  the  eman- 
cipated blacks  are  placed  upon  the  same  territory  in  the  situa- 
tion of  two  alien  communities,  it  will  readily  be  understood 
that  there  are  but  two  alternatives  for  the  future ;  the  negroes 
and  the  whites  must  either  wholly  part  or  wholly  mingle.  I 
have  already  expressed  the  conviction  which  I  entertain  as  to 
the  latter  event.*"  I  do  not  imagine  that  the  white  and  black 
races  will  ever  live  in  any  country  upon  an  equal  footing. 
But  I  believe  the  difficulty  to  be  still  greater  in  the  United 
States  than  elsewhere.  An  isolated  individual  may  surmount 
the  prejudices  of  religion,  of  his  country,  or  of  his  race,  and 
if  this  individual  is  a  king  he  may  effect  surprising  changes 
in  society;  but  a  whole  people  cannot  rise,  as  it  were,  above 
itself.  A  despot  who  should  subject  the  Americans  and  their 
former  slaves  to  the  same  yoke,  might  perhaps  succeed  in 
commingling  their  races ;  but  as  long  as  the  American  democ- 
racy remains  at  the  head  of  affairs,  no  one  will  undertake  so 
difficult  a  task ;  and  it  may  be  foreseen  that  the  freer  the  white 


rThis  opinion  is  sanctioned  by  au- 
thorities infinitely  weightier  than  any- 
thing that  I  can  say  :  thus,  for  instance, 
it  is  stated  in  the  "  Memoirs  of  Jeffer- 
son "  (as  collected  by  M.  Conseil), 
"  Nothing  is  more  clearly  written  in  the 
book  of  destiny  than  the  emancipation 


of  the  blacks  ;  and  it  is  equally  certain 
that  the  two  races  will  never  live  in  a 
state  of  equal  freedom  under  the  same 
government,  so  insurmountable  are  the 
barriers  which  nature,  habit,  and  opin- 
ions have  established  between  them." 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


379 


population  of  the  United  States  becomes,  the  more  isolated 
will  it  remain..^ 

I  have  previously  observed  that  the  mixed  race  is  the  true 
bond  of  union  between  the  Europeans  and  the  Indians;  just 
so  the  mulattoes  are  the  true  means  of  transition  between  the 
white  and  the  negro;  so  that  wherever  mulattoes  abound,  the 
intermixture  of  the  two  races  is  not  impossible.  In  some  parts 
of  America,  the  European  and  the  negro  races  are  so  crossed 
by  one  another,  that  it  is  rare  to  meet  with  a  man  who  is 
entirely  black,  or  entirely  white :  when  they  are  arrived  at  this 
point,  the  two  races  may  really  be  said  to  be  combined;  or 
rather  to  have  been  absorbed  in  a  third  race,  which  is  con- 
nected with  both  without  being  identical  with  either. 

Of  all  the  Europeans  the  English  are  those  who  have  mixed 
least  with  the  negroes.  More  mulattoes  are  to  be  seen  in  the 
South  of  the  Union  than  in  the  North,  but  still  they  are  in- 
finitely more  scarce  than  in  any  other  European  colony :  mulat- 
toes are  by  no  means  numerous  in  the  United  States;  they 
have  no  force  peculiar  to  themselves,  and  when  quarrels  origi- 
nating in  differences  of  color  take  place,  they  generally  side 
with  the  whites;  just  as  the  lackeys  of  the  great,  in  Europe, 
assume  the  contemptuous  airs  of  nobility  to  the  lower  orders. 

The  pride  of  origin,  which  is  natural  to  the  English,  is 
singularly  augmented  by  the  personal  pride  which  democratic 
liberty  fosters  amongst  the  Americans:  the  white  citizen  of 
the  United  States  is  proud  of  his  race,  and  proud  of  himself. 
But  if  the  whites  and  the  negroes  do  not  intermingle  in  the 
North  of  the  Union,  how  should  they  mix  in  the  South  ?  Can 
it  be  supposed  for  an  instant,  that  an  American  of  the  Southern 
States,  placed,  as  he  must  forever  be,  between  the  white  man 
with  all  his  physical  and  moral  superiority  and  the  negro,  will 
ever  think  of  preferring  the  latter?  The  Americans  of  the 
Southern  States  have  two  powerful  passions  which  will  always 
keep  them  aloof;  the  first  is  the  fear  of  being  assimilated  to 
the  negroes,  their  former  slaves ;  and  the  second  the  dread 
sinking  below  the  whites,  their  neighbors. 

If  I  were  called  upon  to  predict  what  will  probably  occur  at 
some  future  time,  I  should  say,  that  the  abolition  of  slavery  in 
the  South  will,  in  the  common  course  of  things,  increase  the 


i; 


nil 


■^^(f 


sit  the  British  West  India  planters 
had  Koverned  themselves,  they  would 
assuredly   not   have   passed   the    Slave 


Emancipation  Bill  which  the  mother- 
country  has  recently  imposed  upon 
them. 


38o 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


m 


I  i' 


I' 


repugnance  of  the  white  population  for  the  men  of  color.  I 
found  this  opinion  upon  the  analogous  observation  which  I 
already  had  occasion  to  make  in  the  North.  I  there  remarked 
that  the  white  inhabitants  of  the  North  avoid  the  negroes  with 
increasing  care,  in  proportion  as  the  legal  barriers  of  separation 
are  removed  by  the  legislature;  and  why  should  not  the  same 
result  take  place  in  the  South?  In  the  North,  the  whites  are 
deterred  from  intermingling  with  the  blacks  by  the  fear  of  an 
imaginary  danger;  in  the  South,  where  the  danger  would  be 
real,  I  cannot  imagine  that  the  fear  would  be  less  general. 

If,  on  the  one  hand,  it  be  admitted  (and  the  fact  is  un- 
questionable) that  the  colored  population  perpetually  accu- 
mulates in  the  extreme  South,  and  that  it  increases  more  rapidly 
than  that  of  the  whites  ;  and  if,  on  the  other  hand,  it  be  allowed 
that  it  is  impossible  to  foresee  a  time  at  which  the  whites  and 
the  blacks  will  be  so  intermingled  as  to  derive  the  same  benefits 
from  society;  must  it  not  be  inferred  that  the  blacks  and  the 
whites  will,  sooner  or  later,  come  to  open  strife  in  the  Southern 
States  of  the  Union?  But  if  it  be  asked  what  the  issue  of  the 
struggle  is  likely  to  be,  it  will  readily  be  understood  that  we 
are  here  left  to  form  a  very  vague  surmise  of  the  truth.  The 
human  mind  may  succeed  in  tracing  a  wide  circle,  as  it  were, 
which  includes  the  course  of  future  events;  but  within  that 
circle  a  thousand  various  chances  and  circumstances  may  direct 
it  in  as  many  different  ways ;  and  in  every  picture  of  the  future 
there  is  a  dim  spot,  which  the  eye  of  the  understanding  cannot 
penetrate.  It  appears,  however,  to  be  extremely  probable  that 
in  the  West  Indian  Islands  the  white  race  is  destined  to  be 
subdued,  and  the  black  population  to  share  the  same  fate  upon 
the  continent. 

In  the  West  India  Islands  the  white  planters  are  surrounded 
by  an  immense  black  population ;  on  the  continent,  the  blacks 
are  placed  between  the  ocean  and  an  innumerable  people,  which 
already  extends  over  them  in  a  dense  mass,  from  the  icy  con- 
fines of  Canada  to  the  frontiers  of  Virginia,  and  from  the 
banks  of  the  Missouri  to  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic.  If  the 
white  citizens  of  North  America  remain  united,  it  cannot  be 
supposed  that  the  negroes  will  escape  the  destruction  with 
which  they  are  menaced ;  they  must  be  subdued  by  want  or  by 
the  sword.  But  the  black  population  which  is  accumulated 
along  the  coast  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  has  a  chance  of  success 


( j" 


rt!^ 


M 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


381 


if  the  American  Union  is  dissolved  when  the  struggle  between 
the  two  races  begins.  If  the  federal  tie  were  broken,  the 
citizens  of  the  South  would  be  wrong  to  rely  upon  any  lasting 
succor  from  their  Northern  countrymen.  The  latter  are  well 
aware  that  the  danger  can  never  reach  them ;  and  unless  they 
are  constrained  to  march  to  the  assistance  of  the  South  by  a 
positive  obligation,  it  may  be  foreseen  that  the  sympathy  of 
color  will  be  insufficient  to  stimulate  their  exertions. 

Yet,  at  whatever  period  the  strife  may  break  out,  the  whites 
of  the  South,  even  if  they  are  abandoned  to  their  own  resources, 
will  enter  the  lists  with  an  immense  superiority  of  knowledge 
and  of  the  means  of  warfare ;  but  the  blacks  will  have  numeri- 
cal strength  and  the  energy  of  despair  upon  their  side,  and 
these  are  powerful  resources  to  men  who  have  taken  up  arms. 
The  fate  of  the  white  population  of  the  Southern  States  will, 
perhaps,  be  similar  to  that  of  the  Moors  in  Spain.  After  hav- 
ing occupied  the  land  for  centuries,  it  will  perhaps  be  forced 
to  retire  to  the  country  whence  its  ancestors  came,  and  to 
abandon  to  the  negroes  the  possession  of  a  territory,  which 
Providence  seems  to  have  more  peculiarly  destined  for  them, 
since  they  can  subsist  and  labor  in  it  more  easily  that  the 
whites. 

The  danger  of  a  conflict  between  the  white  and  the  black 
inhabitants  of  the  Southern  States  of  the  Union — a  danger 
which,  however  remote  it  may  be,  is  inevitable — perpetually 
haunts  the  imagination  of  the  Americans.  The  inhabitants  of 
the  North  make  it  a  common  topic  of  conversation,  although 
they  have  no  direct  injury  to  fear  from  the  struggle ;  but  they 
vainly  endeavor  to  devise  some  means  of  obviating  the  mis- 
fortunes which  they  foresee.  In  the  Southern  States  the  sub- 
ject is  not  discussed :  the  planter  does  not  allude  to  the  future 
in  conversing  with  strangers;  the  citizen  does  not  communi- 
cate his  apprehensions  to  his  friends ;  he  seeks  to  conceal  them 
from  himself;  but  there  is  something  more  alarming  in  the 
tacit  forebodings  of  the  South,  than  in  the  clamorous  fears 
of  the  Northern  States. 

This  all-pervading  disquietude  has  given  birth  to  an  under- 
taking which  is  but  little  known,  but  which  may  have  the 
effect  of  changing  the  fate  of  a  portion  of  the  human  race. 
From  apprehension  of  the  dangers  which  I  have  just  been 
describing,  a  certain  number  of  American  citizens  have  formed 


'14 


;f 


m 

V 


-•I'' 


I  i. 


HI 


I'i 


382 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


i 


'Kl 


■■  M 


a  society  for  the  purpose  of  exporting  to  the  coast  of  Guinea, 
at  their  own  expense,  such  free  negroes  as  may  be  willing 
to  escape  from  the  oppression  to  which  they  are  subject.'  In 
1820,  the  society  to  which  I  allude  formed  a  settlement  in 
Africa,  upon  the  seventh  degree  of  north  latitude,  which  bears 
the  name  of  Liberia.  The  most  recent  intelligence  informs 
us  that  2,500  negroes  a're  collected  there ;  they  have  introduced 
the  democratic  institutions  of  America  into  the  country  of 
their  forefathers;  and  Liberia  has  a  representative  system  of 
government,  negro  jurymen,  negro  magistrates,  and  negro 
priests ;  churches  have  been  built,  newspapers  established,  and, 
by  a  singular  change  in  the  vicissitudes  of  the  world,  white 
men  are  prohibited  from  sojourning  within  the  settlement." 

This  is  indeed  a  strange  caprice  of  fortune.  Two  hundred 
years  have  now  elapsed  since  the  inhabitants  of  Europe  un- 
dertook to  tear  the  negro  from  his  family  and  his  home,  in 
order  to  transport  him  to  the  shores  of  North  America ;  at  the 
present  day,  the  European  settlers  are  engaged  in  sending 
back  the  descendants  of  those  very  negroes  to  the  Continent 
from  which  they  were  originally  taken;  and  the  barbarous 
Africans  have  been  brought  into  contact  with  civilization  in 
the  midst  of  bondage,  and  have  become  acquainted  with  free 
political  institutions  in  slavery.  Up  to  the  present  time  Africa 
has  been  closed  against  the  arts  and  sciences  of  the  whites ;  but 
the  inventions  of  Europe  will  perhaps  penetrate  into  those 
regions,  now  that  they  are  introduced  by  Africans  themselves. 
The  settlement  of  Liberia  is  founded  upon  a  lofty  and  a  most 
fruitful  idea;  but  whatever  may  be  its  results  with  regard  to 
the  Continent  of  Africa,  it  can  afiford  no  remedy  to  the  New 
World. 

In  twelve  years  the  Colonization  Society  has  transported 
2,500  negroes  to  Africa ;  in  the  same  space  of  time  about  700,- 
000  blacks  were  born  in  the  United  States.  If  the  colony  of 
Liberia  were  so  situated  as  to  be  able  to  receive  thousands  of 
new  inhabitants  every  year,  and  if  the  negroes  were  in  a  state  to 


(This  society  assumed  the  name  of 
"  The  Society  for  the  Colonization  of 
the  Blacks."  See  its  annual  reports  ; 
and  more  particularly  the  fifteenth.  See 
also  ♦'  e  pamphlet,  to  which  allusion  has 
alrt  ly  Tbeen  made,  entitled  "  Letters 
on  the  Colonization  Society,  and  on  its 
probable  Results,"  by  Mr.  Carey,  Phila- 
delphia, 1833. 


h-\    ' 


u  This  last  regulation  was  laid  down 
by  the  founders  of  the  settlement  ;  they 
apprehended  that  a  state  of  thinRS 
might  arise  in  Africa  similar  to  that 
which  exists  on  the  frontiers  of  the 
United  States,  and  that  if  the  negroes, 
like  the  Indians,  were  brought  into  col- 
lision with  a  people  more  enlightened 
than  themselves,  they  would  be  de- 
stroyed before  they  could  be  civilized. 


fl 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


383 


be  sent  thither  with  advantage;  if  the  Union  were  to  supply 
the  society  with  annual  subsidies,^'  and  to  transport  the  negroes 
to  Africa  in  the  vessels  of  the  State,  it  would  still  be  unable  to 
counterpoise  the  natural  increase  of  population  amongst  the 
blacks ;  and  as  it  could  not  remove  as  many  men  in  a  year  as 
are  born  upon  its  territory  within  the  same  space  of  time,  it 
would  fail  in  suspending  the  growth  of  the  evil  which  is  daily 
increasing  in  the  States.^  The  negro  race  will  never  leave 
those  shores  of  the  American  continent,  to  which  it  was  brought 
by  the  passions  and  the  vices  of  Europeans;  and  it  will  not 
disappear  from  the  New  World  as  long  as  it  continues  to  exist. 
The  inhabitants  of  the  United  States  may  retard  the  calamities 
which  they  apprehend,  but  they  cannot  now  destroy  their  effi- 
cient cause. 

I  am  obliged  to  confess  that  I  do  not  regard  the  abolition 
of  slavery  as  a  means  of  warding  off  the  struggle  of  the  two 
races  in  the  United  States.  The  negroes  may  long  remain 
slaves  without  complaining ;  but  if  they  are  once  raised  to  the 
level  of  free  men,  they  will  soon  revolt  at  being  deprived  of 
all  their  civil  rights ;  and  as  they  cannot  become  the  equals  of 
the  whites,  they  will  speedily  declare  themselves  as  enemies. 
In  the  North  everything  contributed  to  facilitate  the  emanci- 
pation of  the  slaves ;  and  slavery  was  abolished,  without  placing 
the  free  negroes  in  a  position  which  could  become  formidable, 
since  their  number  was  too  small  for  them  ever  to  claim  the 
exercise  of  their  rights.  But  such  is  not  the  case  in  the  South. 
The  question  of  slavery  was  a  question  of  commerce  and  man- 
ufacture for  the  slave-owners  in  the  North;  for  those  of  the 
South,  it  is  a  question  of  life  and  death.  God  forbid  that  I 
should  seek  to  justify  the  principle  of  negro  slavery,  as  has  been 
done  by  some  American  writers  I  But  I  only  observe  that  all 
the  countries  which  formerly  adopted  that  execrable  principle 
are  not  equally  able  to  abandon  it  at  the  present  time. 

When  I  contemplate  the  condition  of  the  South,  I  can  only 


/If. 


til 

J 


II 


'    ■  ,1 


V  Nor  would  these  he  the  only  diffi- 
culties attendant  upon  the  undertaking  ; 
if  the  Union  undertook  to  buy  up  the 
negroes  now  in  America,  in  order  to 
transport  them  to  Africa,  the  price  of 
slaves,  increasing  with  their  scarcity, 
would  soon  become  enormous  ;  and  the 
States  of  the  North  would  never  con- 
sent to  expend  such  great  sums  for  a 
purpose  which  would  procure  such  small 
advantages  to  themselves.    If  the  Union 


took  possession  of  the  slaves  in  the 
Southern  States  by  force,  or  at  a  rate 
determined  by  law,  an  insurmountable 
resistance  would  arise  in  that  part  of 
the  country.  Both  alternatives  are 
equally  impossible. 

w  In  1830  there  were  in  the  United 
States  2,010,327  slaves  and  319,439  free 
blacks,  in  all  2,320.766  negroes  :  which 
formed  about  one-fifth  of  the  total  popu- 
lation of  the  United  States  at  that  tipie. 


384 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


'  ;      M>, 


I'i 


discover  two  alternatives  which  may  be  adopted  by  the  white 
inhabitants  of  those  States;  viz.,  either  to  emancipate  the  ne- 
groes, and  to  intermingle  with  them;  or,  remaining  isolated 
from  them,  to  keep  them  in  a  state  of  slavery  as  long  as  pos- 
sible. All  intermediate  measures  seem  to  me  likely  to  termi- 
nate, and  that  shortly,  in  the  most  horrible  of  civil  wars,  and 
perhaps  in  the  extirpation  of  one  or  other  of  the  two  races. 
Such  is  the  view  which  the  Americans  of  the  South  take  of  the 
question,  and  they  act  consistently  with  it.  As  they  are  de- 
termined not  to  mingle  with  the  negroes,  they  refuse  to  eman- 
cipate them. 

Not  that  the  inhabitants  of  the  South  regard  slavery  as  nec- 
essary to  the  wealth  of  the  planter,  for  on  this  point  many  of 
them  agree  with  their  Northern  countrymen  in  freely  admitting 
that  slavery  is  prejudicial  to  their  interest;  but  they  are  con- 
vinced that,  however  prejudicial  it  may  be,  they  hold  their 
lives  upon  no  other  tenure.  The  instruction  which  is  now  dif- 
fused in  the  South  has  convinced  the  inhabitants  that  slavery 
is  injurious  to  the  slave-owner,  but  it  has  also  shown  them,  more 
clearly  than  before,  that  no  means  exist  of  getting  rid  of  its 
bad  consequences.  Hence  arises  a  singular  contrast ;  the  more 
the  utility  of  slavery  is  contested,  the  more  firmly  is  it  estab- 
lished in  the  laws ;  and  whilst  the  principle  of  servitude  is  grad- 
ually abolished  in  the  North,  that  self-same  principle  gives  rise 
to  more  and  more  rigorous  consequences  in  the  South. 

The  legislation  of  the  Southern  States  with  regard  to  slaves, 
presents  at  the  present  day  such  unparalleled  atrocities  as  suf- 
fice to  show  how  radically  the  laws  of  humanity  have  been  per- 
verted, and  to  betray  the  desperate  position  of  the  community 
in  which  that  legislation  has  been  promulgated.  The  Ameri- 
cans of  this  portion  of  the  Union  have  not,  indeed,  augmented 
the  hardships  of  slavery ;  they  have,  on  the  contrary,  bettered 
the  physical  condition  of  the  slaves.  The  only  means  by  which 
the  ancients  maintained  slavery  were  fetters  and  death;  the 
Americans  of  the  South  of  the  Union  have  discovered  more  in- 
tellectual securities  for  the  duration  of  their  power.  They 
have  employed  their  despotism  and  their  violence  against  the 
human  mind.  In  antiquity,  precautions  were  taken  to  prevent 
the  slave  from  breaking  his  chains ;  at  the  present  day  measures 
are  adopted  to  deprive  him  even  of  the  desire  of  freedom.  The 
ancients  kept  the  bodies  of  their  slaves  in  bondage,  but  they 


fi,  ^ '/ 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


585 


placed  no  restraint  upon  the  mind  and  no  check  upon  educa- 
tion ;  and  they  acted  consistently  with  their  established  princi- 
ple, since  a  natural  termination  of  slavery  then  existed,  and 
one  day  or  other  the  slave  might  be  set  free,  and  become  the 
equal  of  his  master.  But  the  Americans  of  the  South,  who 
do  not  admit  that  the  negroes  can  ever  be  commingled  with 
themselves,  have  forbidden  them  to  be  taught  to  read  or  to 
write,  under  severe  penalties ;  and  as  they  will  not  raise  them 
to  their  own  level,  they  sink  them  as  nearly  as  possible  to  that 
of  the  brutes. 

The  hope  of  liberty  had  always  been  allowed  to  the  slave  to 
cheer  the  hardships  of  his  condition.  But  the  Americans  of 
the  South  are  well  aware  that  emancipation  cannot  but  be  dan- 
gerous, when  the  freed  man  can  never  be  assimilated  to  his 
former  master.  To  give  a  man  his  freedom,  and  t6  leave  him 
ni  wretchedness  and  ignominy,  is  nothing  less  than  to  prepare 
a  future  chief  for  a  revolt  of  the  slaves.  Moreover,  it  has  long 
been  remarked  that  the  presence  of  a  free  negro  vaguely  agi- 
tates the  minds  of  his  less  fortunate  brethren,  and  conveys  to 
them  a  dim  notion  of  their  rights.  The  Americans  of  the  South 
have  consequently  taken  measures  to  prevent  slave-owners  from 
emancipating  their  slaves  in  most  cases ;  not  indeed  by  a  posi- 
tive prohibition,  but  by  subjecting  that  step  to  various  forms 
which  it  is  difficult  to  comply  with. 

I  happened  to  meet  with  an  old  man,  in  the  South  of  the 
Union,  who  had  lived  in  illicit  intercourse  with  one  of  lis 
negresses,  and  had  had  several  children  by  her,  who  were  born 
the  slaves  of  their  father.  He  had  indeed  frequently  thought 
of  bequeathing  to  them  at  least  their  liberty;  but  years  had 
elapsed  without  his  being  able  to  surmount  the  legal  obstacles 
to  their  emancipation,  and  in  the  mean  while  his  old  age  was 
come,  and  he  was  about  to  die.  He  pictured  to  himself  his 
sons  dragged  from  market  to  market,  and  passing  from  the 
authority  of  a  parent  to  the  rod  of  the  stranger,  until  these 
horrid  anticipations  worked  his  expiring  imagination  into 
frenzy.  When  I  saw  him  he  was  a  prey  to  all  the  anguish  of 
despair,  and  he  made  me  feel  how  awful  is  the  retribution  of 
nature  upon  those  who  have  broken  her  laws. 

These  evils  are  unquestionably  great ;  but  they  are  the  nec- 
essary and  foreseen  consequence  of  the  very  principle  of  mod- 
ern slavery.  When  the  Europeans  chose  their  slaves  from  a 
Vol.  I.— 25 


I 


« 


'r'i 


386 


DE  TOCQURVILLE 


•     I  1 


race  differing  from  their  own,  which  many  of  them  considered 
as  inferior  to  the  other  races  of  mankind,  and  whicli  they  all 
repelled  with  horror  from  any  notion  of  intimate  connection, 
they  must  have  believed  that  slavery  would  last  forever;  since 
there  is  no  intermediate  state  which  can  be  durable  between 
the  excessive  inequality  produced  by  servitude  and  the  com- 
plete equality  which  originates  in  independence.  The  Euro- 
peans did  imperfectly  feel  this  truth,  but  without  acknowledg- 
ing it  even  to  themselves.  Whenever  they  have  had  to  do 
with  negroes,  their  conduct  has  either  been  dictated  by  their 
interest  and  their  pride,  or  by  their  compassion.  They  first 
violated  every  right  of  humanity  by  their  treatment  of  the 
negro  and  they  afterwards  informed  him  that  those  rights 
were  precious  and  inviolable.  They  affected  to  open  their 
ranks  to  the  slaves,  but  the  negroes  who  attempted  to  pene- 
trate into  the  community  were  driven  back  with  scorn;  and 
they  have  incautiously  and  involuntarily  been  led  to  admit  of 
freedom  instead  of  slavery,  without  having  the  courage  to  be 
wholly  iniquitous,  or  wholly  just. 

If  it  be  impossible  to  anticipate  a  period  at  which  the  Ameri- 
cans of  the  South  will  mingle  their  blood  with  that  of  the 
negroes,  can  they  allow  their  slaves  to  become  free  without 
compromising  their  own  security?  And  if  they  are  obliged 
to  keep  that  race  in  bondage  in  order  to  save  their  own  families, 
may  they  not  be  excused  for  availing  themselves  of  the  means 
best  adapted  to  that  end?  The  events  which  are  taking  place 
in  the  Southern  States  of  the  Union  appear  to  me  to  be  at  once 
the  most  horrible  and  the  most  natural  results  of  slavery. 
When  I  see  the  order  of  nature  overthrown,  and  when  I  hear 
the  cry  of  humanity  in  its  vain  struggle  against  the  laws,  my 
indignation  does  not  light  upon  the  men  of  our  own  lime  who 
are  the  instruments  of  these  outrages ;  but  I  reserve  my  execra- 
tion for  those  who,  after  a  thousand  years  of  freedom,  brought 
back  slavery  into  the  world  once  more. 

Whatever  may  be  the  efforts  of  the  Americans  of  the  South 
to  maintain  slavery,  they  will  not  always  succeed.  Slavery, 
which  is  now  confined  to  a  single  tract  of  the  civilized  earth, 
which  is  attacked  by  Christianity  as  unjust,  and  by  political 
economy  as  prejudicial;  and  which  is  now  contrasted  with 
democratic  liberties  and  the  information  of  our  age,  cannot 
survive.    By  the  choice  of  the  master,  or  by  the  will  of  the 


1 


UKMOCKACY   IN   AMKKICA 


3«7 


slave,  it  will  cease ;  ami  in  cither  case  great  calamities  may  be 
expected  to  ensue.  If  liberty  be  refused  to  the  negroes  of  the 
South,  they  will  in  the  end  seize  it  for  themselves  by  force ;  if 
it  be  given,  they  will  abuse  it  ere  long.* 


What  Auk  thk  Chances  tn  Favoh  ok  thk  Duration  ok 
THii  Amkkican  Union,  and  What  Danokk.s  THuiiATiiN 

Reason  for  which  the  preponderating  force  lies  in  the  States  rather  tlian 
in  the  Union— The  Union  will  only  last  as  long  as  all  the  States 
choose  to  belong  to  it— Causes  which  tend  to  keep  them  united — 
Utility  of  the  Union  to  resist  foreign  enemies,  and  to  prevent  the 
existence  of  foreigners  in  America— No  natural  barriers  between  the 
several  States — No  conllictiag  interests  to  divide  them— Reciprocal 
interests  of  the  Northern,  Southern,  and  Western  States— Intel- 
lectual tics  of  union — Uniformity  of  opinions — Dangers  of  the  Union 
resulting  from  the  different  characters  and  the  passions  of  its  citizens 
— Character  of  the  citizens  in  the  South  and  in  the  North— The  rapid 
growth  of  the  Union  one  of  its  greatest  dangers — Progress  of  the 
population  to  the  Northwest — Power  gravitates  in  the  same  direc- 
tion— Passions  originating  from  sudden  turns  of  fortune — Whether 
the  existing  Government  of  the  Union  tends  to  gain  strength,  or  to 
lose  it — Various  signs  of  its  decrease — Internal  improvements — 
Waste  lands— Infl'  ns— The  Bank— The  Tariff— General  Jackson. 

The  maintenance  of  the  existing  institutions  of  the  several 
States  depends  in  some  measure  upon  the  maintenance  of  the 
Union  itself.  It  is  therefore  important  in  the  first  instance  to 
inquire  into  the  probable  fate  of  the  Union.  One  point  may 
indeed  be  assumed  at  once :  if  the  present  confederation  were 
dissolved,  it  appears  to  me  to  be  incontestable  that  the  States 
of  which  it  is  now  composed  would  not  return  to  their  original 
isolated  condition,  but  that  several  unions  would  then  be  formed 

X  [This  chapter  is  no  longer  applica- 
ble to  the  condition  of  the  negro  race 
in  the  United  States,  since  the  abolition 
of  slavery  was  the  result,  though  not 
the  object,  of  the  great  Civil  War,  and 
the  negroes  have  been  raised  to  the 
condition  not  only  of  freedtnen,  but  of 
citizens  ;  and  in  some  States  they  ex- 
ercise a  preponderating  political  power 
by  reason  of  their  numerical  majority. 
Tlius,  in  South  Carolina  there  were  in 
1870,  389,667  whites  and  4iS<8i4  blacks. 
But  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  has 
not  solved  the  problem,  how  two  races 
BO  different  and  so  hostile  are  to  live 
together  in  peace  in  one  country  on 
equal  terms.  That  problem  is  as  diffi- 
cult, perhaps  more  difficult  than  ever  ; 
and  to  this  difficulty  the  author's  re- 
marks are  still  perfectly  applicable.] 


y  [This  chapter  is  one  of  the  most 
curious  and  interesting  portions  of  the 
work,  because  it  embraces  almost  all  the 
constitutional  and  social  questions  which 
were  raised  by  the  great  secession  of 
the  Jouth  and  decided  by  the  results  of 
the  Civil  War.  But  it  must  be  confessed 
that  the  sagacity  of  the  author  is  some- 
times at  fault  in  these  speculations,  and 
did  not  save  him  from  considerable  er- 
rors, which  the  course  of  events  has 
since  made  apparent.  He  held  that  "  the 
legislators  of  the  Constitution  of  1789 
were  not  appointed  to  constitute  the 
government  of  a  single  people,  but  to 
regulate  the  association  of  several 
States  ;  that  the  Union  was  formed  by 
the  voluntary  agreement  of  the  States, 
and  in  uniting  together  they  have  not 
forfeited    their    nationality,    nor    have 


y' 


\\ 


388 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


!  i 


i     !' 


in  the  place  of  one.  It  is  not  my  intention  to  inquire  into  the 
principles  upon  which  these  new  unions  would  probably  be 
established,  but  merely  to  show  what  the  causes  are  which  may 
effect  the  dismemberment  of  the  existing  confederation. 

With  this  object  I  shall  be  obliged  to  retrace  some  of  the 
steps  which  I  have  already  taken,  and  to  revert  to  topics  which 
I  have  before  discussed.  I  am  aware  that  the  reader  may  ac- 
cuse me  of  repetition,  but  the  importance  of  the  matter  which 
still  remains  to  be  treated  is  my  excuse ;  I  had  rather  say  too 
much,  than  say  too  little  to  be  thoroughly  understood,  and  I 
prefer  injuring  the  author  to  slighting  the  subject. 

The  legislators  who  formed  the  Constitution  of  1789  en- 
deavored to  confer  a  distinct  and  preponderating  authority 
upon  the  federal  power.  But  they  were  confined  by  the  con- 
ditions of  the  task  which  they  had  undertaken  to  perform.  They 
were  not  appointed  to  constitute  the  government  of  a  single 
people,  but  to  regulate  the  association  of  several  States ;  and, 
whatever  their  inclinations  might  be,  they  could  not  but  divide 
the  exercise  of  sovereignty  in  the  end. 

In  order  to  understand  the  consequences  of  this  division,  it 


they  been  reduced  to  the  condition  of 
one  and  the  same  people."  Whence  he 
inferred  that  "  if  one  of  the  States  chose 
to  withdraw  its  name  from  the  contract. 
It  would  be  difficult  to  disprove  its  right 
of  doing  so  ;  and  that  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment would  have  no  means  of  main- 
taining its  claims  directly,  either  by 
force  or  by  right."  This  is  the  Southern 
theory  of  the  Constitution,  and  the 
whole  case  of  the  South  in  favor  of  se- 
cession. To  many  Europeans,  and  t. 
some  American  (Northern)  jurists,  this 
view  appeared  to  be  sound  ;  but  it  was 
vigorously  resisted  by  the  North,  and 
crushed  by  force  of  arms. 

The  author  of  this  book  was  mistaken 
in  supposing  that  the  "  Union  was  a 
vast  body  which  presents  no  definite 
object  to  patriotic  feeling."  When  the 
day  of  trial  came,  millions  of  men  were 
ready  to  lay  down  their  lives  for  it.  Hr 
was  also  mistaken  in  supposing  that  the 
Federal  Executive  is  so  weak  that  it 
requires  the  free  consent  of  the  governed 
to  enable  it  to  subsist,  and  that  it  would 
be  defeated  in  a  struggle  to  maintain  the 
Union  against  one  or  more  separate 
States.  In  1861  nine  States,  with  a  pop- 
ulation of  8,753,000,  seceded,  and  main- 
tained for  four  years  a  resolute  but  un- 
equal contest  for  independence,  but  they 
were  defeated. 

Lastly,  the  author  was  mistaken  in 
•tipposing  that  a  community  of  interests 
would  always  prevail  between  North  and 
South  sufficiently  powerful  to  bind  them 
tofictlicr.  lie  ovi'rlnnkcd  the  influence 
which  the  question  of  slavery  must  have 


on  the  Union  the  moment  that  the  ma- 
jority of  the  people  of  the  North  de- 
clared against  it.  In  1831,  when  the 
author  visited  America,  the  anti-slavery 
agitation  had  scarcely  begun  ;  and  the 
fact  of  Southern  slavery  was  accepted 
by  men  of  all  parties,  even  in  the  States 
where  there  were  no  slaves  :  and  that 
was  unquestionably  the  view  taken  by 
rll  the  States  and  by  all  American  states- 
..  fn  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the 
'  institution,  in  1789.  But  in  the  course 
01  thirty  years  a  great  change  took  place, 
and  the  North  refused  to  perpetuate 
what  had  become  the  "  peculiar  insti- 
tution "  of  the  South,  especially  as  it 
gave  the  South  a  species  of  aristocratic 
preponderance.  The  result  was  the  rati- 
fication, in  December,  1865,  of  the  cele- 
brated 13th  article  or  amendment  of 
the  Constitution,  which  declared  that 
"  neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servi- 
tude— except  as  a  punishment  for  crime 
— shall  exist  within  the  United  States." 
To  which  was  soon  afterwards  added 
the  isth  article,  "  The  right  of  citizens 
to  vote  shall  not  be  denied  or  abridged 
by  the  United  States,  or  by  any  State, 
on  account  of  race,  color,  or  previous 
servitude."  The  emancipation  of  sev- 
eral millions  of  negro  slaves  without 
compensation,  and  the  transfer  to  them 
of  political  preponderance  in  the  States 
in  which  they  outnumber  the  white 
population,  were  acts  of  the  North 
totally  opposed  to  the  interests  of  the 
South,  and  which  could  only  have  been 
carried  into  effect  by  conquest.— TraMi- 
lator's  Note.} 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


389 


is  necessary  to  make  a  short  distinction  between  the  affairs  of 
the  Government.  There  are  some  objects  which  are  national 
by  their  very  nature,  that  is  to  say,  which  affect  the  nation  as  a 
body,  and  can  only  be  intrusted  to  the  man  or  tJic  assembly  of 
men  who  most  completely  represent  the  entire  nation. 
Amongst  these  may  be  reckoned  war  and  diplomacy.  There 
are  other  objects  which  are  provincial  by  their  very  nature, 
that  is  to  say,  which  only  affect  certain  localities,  and  which  can 
only  be  properly  treated  in  that  locality.  Such,  for  instance,  is 
the  budget  of  a  municipalit}'.  Lastly,  there  are  certain  objects 
of  a  mixed  nature,  which  are  national  inasmuch  as  they  affect 
all  the  citizens  who  compose  the  nation,  and  which  are  provin- 
cial inasmuch  as  it  is  not  necessary  that  the  nation  itself  should 
provide  for  them  all.  Such  are  the  rights  which  regulate  the 
civil  and  political  condition  of  the  citizens.  No  society  can 
exist  without  civil  and  political  rights.  These  rights  therefore 
interest  all  the  citizens  alike ;  but  it  is  not  always  necessary  to 
the  existence  and  the  prosperity  of  the  nation  that  these  rights 
should  be  uniform,  nor,  consequently,  that  they  should  be  regu- 
lated by  the  central  authority. 

There  are,  then,  two  distinct  categories  of  objects  which  are 
submitted  to  the  direction  of  the  sovereign  power;  and  these 
categories  occur  in  all  well-constituted  communities,  whatever 
the  basis  of  the  political  constitution  may  otherwise  be.  Be- 
tween these  two  extremes  the  objects  which  I  have  termed 
mixed  may  be  considered  to  lie.  As  these  objects  are  neither 
exclusively  national  nor  entirely  provincial,  they  may  be  ob- 
tained by  a  national  or  by  a  provincial  government,  according 
to  the  agreement  of  the  contracting  parties,  without  in  any  way 
impairing  the  contract  of  association. 

The  sovereign  power  is  usually  formed  by  the  union  of  sepa- 
rate individuals,  who  compose  a  people ;  and  individual  powers 
or  collective  forces,  each  representing  a  very  small  portion  of 
the  sovereign  authority,  are  the  sole  elements  which  are  sub- 
jected to  the  general  Government  of  their  choice.  In  this  case 
the  general  Government  is  more  naturally  called  upon  to  regu- 
late, not  only  those  affairs  which  are  of  essential  national  im- 
portance, but  those  which  are  of  a  more  local  interest ;  and  the 
local  governments  are  reduced  to  that  small  share  of  sovereign 
authority  which  is  indispensable  to  their  prosperity. 

But  sometimes  the  sovereign  authority  is  composed  of  pre- 


'«* 


Jui 


.1 


f 


39° 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


i  !  k 


n 


P     ili! 


t  , 


organized  political  bodies,  by  virtue  of  circumstances  anterior 
to  their  union ;  and  in  this  case  the  provincial  governments  as- 
sume the  control,  not  only  of  those  affairs  which  more  peculiarly 
belong  to  their  province,  but  of  all,  or  of  a  part  of  the  mixed  af- 
fairs to  which  allusion  has  been  made.  For  the  confederate 
nations  which  were  independent  sovereign  States  before  their 
union,  and  which  still  represent  a  very  considerable  share  of 
the  sovei  cign  power,  have  only  consented  to  cede  to  the  general 
Government  the  exercise  of  those  rights  which  are  indispensa- 
ble to  the  Union. 

When  the  national  Government,  independently  of  the  pre- 
rogatives inherent  in  its  nature,  is  invested  with  the  right  of 
regulating  the  affairs  which  relate  partly  to  the  general  and 
partly  to  the  local  interests,  it  possesses  a  preponderating  influ- 
ence. Not  only  are  its  own  rights  extensive,  but  all  the  rights 
which  it  does  not  possess  exist  by  its  sufferance,  and  it  may  be 
apprehended  that  the  provincial  governments  may  be  deprived 
of  their  natural  and  necessary  prerogatives  by  its  influence. 

When,  on  the  other  hand,  the  provincial  governments  are 
invested  with  the  power  of  regulating  those  same  affairs  of 
mixed  interest,  an  opposite  tendency  prevails  in  society.  The 
preponderating  force  resides  in  the  province,  not  in  the  nation ; 
and  it  may  be  apprehended  that  the  national  Government  may 
in  the  end  be  stripped  of  the  privileges  which  are  necessary  to 
its  existence. 

Independent  nations  have  therefore  a  natural  tendency  to 
centralization,  and  confederations  to  dismemberment. 

It  now  only  remains  for  us  to  apply  these  general  principles  to 
the  American  Union.  The  several  States  were  necessarily 
possessed  of  the  right  of  regulating  all  exclusively  provincial 
affairs.  Moreover  these  same  States  retained  the  rights  of  de- 
termining the  civil  and  political  competency  of  the  citizens,  or 
regulating  the  reciprocal  relations  of  the  members  of  the  com- 
munity, and  of  dispensing  justice ;  rights  which  are  of  a  general 
nature,  but  which  do  not  necessarily  appertain  to  the  national 
Government.  We  have  shown  that  the  Government  of  the 
Union  is  invested  with  the  power  of  acting  in  the  name  of  the 
whole  nation  in  those  cases  in  which  the  nation  has  to  appear  as 
a  single  and  undivided  power ;  as,  for  instance,  in  foreign  rela- 
tions, and  in  offering  a  common  resistance  to  a  common  enemy ; 
in  short,  in  conducting  those  affairs  which  I  have  styled  exclu- 
sively national. 


1.     ' 


'& 


ilT!; 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


m 


in  this  division  of  the  rights  of  sovereignty,  the  share  of  the 
Union  seems  at  first  sight  to  be  more  considerable  than  that  of 
the  States ;  but  a  more  attentive  investigation  shows  it  to  be 
less  so.  The  undertakings  of  the  Government  of  the  Union 
are  more  vast,  but  their  influence  is  more  rarely  felt.  Those  of 
the  provincial  governments  are  comparatively  small,  but  they 
are  incessant,  and  they  serve  to  keep  alive  the  authority  which 
they  represent.  The  Government  of  the  Union  watches  the 
general  interests  of  the  country ;  but  the  general  interests  of  a 
people  have  a  very  questionable  influence  upon  individual  hap- 
piness, whilst  provincial  interests  produce  a  most  immediate 
effect  upon  the  welfare  of  the  inhabitants.  The  Union  secures 
the  independence  and  the  greatness  of  the  nation,  which  do  not 
immediately  affect  private  citizens ;  but  the  several  States  main- 
tain the  liberty,  regulate  the  rights,  protect  the  fortune,  and 
secure  the  life  and  the  whole  future  prosperity  of  every  citizen. 

The  Federal  Government  is  very  far  removed  from  its  sub- 
jects, whilst  the  provincial  governments  are  within  the  reach  of 
them  all,  and  are  ready  to  attend  to  the  smallest  appeal.  The 
central  Government  has  upon  its  side  the  passions  of  a  few 
superior  men  who  aspire  to  conduct  it;  but  upon  the 
side  of  the  provincial  governments  are  the  interests  of  all 
those  second-rate  individuals  who  can  only  hope  to  obtain 
power  w.thin  their  own  State,  and  who  nevertheless  exercise 
the  largest  share  of  authority  over  the  people  because  they  are 
placed  nearest  to  its  level.  The  Americans  have  therefore 
much  more  to  hope  and  to  fear  from  the  States  than  from  the 
Union;  and,  in  conformity  with  the  natural  tendency  of  the 
human  mind,  they  are  more  likely  to  attach  themselves  to  the 
former  than  to  the  latter.  In  this  respect  their  habits  and  feel- 
ings harmonize  with  their  interests. 

When  a  compact  natirn  divides  its  sovereignty,  and  adopts 
a  confederate  form  of  government,  the  traditions,  the  customs, 
and  the  manners  of  the  people  are  for  a  long  time  at  variance 
with  their  legislation ;  and  the  former  tend  to  give  a  degree  of 
influence  to  the  central  government  which  the  latter  forbius. 
When  a  number  of  confederate  states  unite  to  form  a  single 
nation,  the  same  causes  operate  in  an  opposite  direction.  I 
have  no  doubt  that  if  France  were  to  become  a  confederate  re- 
public like  that  of  the  United  States,  the  government  would  at 
first  display  more  energy  than  that  of  the  Union ;  and  if  the 


■.*'? 


<!!'  :■■ 


1 


tl 


i 


392 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


\H 


m 


n 


1 


Union  were  to  alter  its  constitution  to  a  monarchy  like  that  of 
France,  I  think  that  the  American  Government  would  be  a 
long  time  in  acquiring  the  force  which  now  rules  the  latter 
nation.  When  the  national  existence  of  the  Anglo-Americans 
began,  their  provincial  existence  was  already  of  long  standing ; 
necessary  relations  were  established  between  the  townships  and 
the  individual  citizens  of  the  same  States ;  and  they  were  accus- 
tomed to  consider  some  objects  as  common  to  them  all,  and  to 
conduct  other  affairs  as  exclusively  relating  to  their  own  special 
interests. 

The  Union  is  a  vast  body  which  presents  no  definite  object 
to  patriotic  feeling.  The  forms  and  limits  of  the  State  are  dis- 
tinct and  circumscribed ;  since  it  represents  a  certain  number  of 
objects  which  are  familiar  to  the  citizens  and  beloved  by  all. 
It  is  identified  with  the  very  soil,  with  the  right  of  property  and 
the  domestic  affections,  with  the  recollections  of  the  past,  the 
labors  of  the  present,  and  the  hopes  of  the  future.  Patriotism, 
then,  which  is  frequently  a  mere  extension  of  individual  ego- 
tism, is  still  directed  to  the  State,  and  is  not  excited  by  the 
Union.  Thus  the  tendency  of  the  interests,  the  habits,  and  the 
feelings  of  the  people  is  to  centre  political  acti  *rity  in  the  States, 
in  preference  to  the  Union. 

It  is  easy  to  estimate  the  different  forces  of  the  two  govern- 
ments, by  remarking  the  manner  in  which  they  fulfil  their  re- 
spective functions.  Whenever  the  government  of  a  State  has 
occasion  to  address  an  individual  or  an  assembly  of  individuals, 
its  language  is  clear  and  imperative ;  and  such  is  also  the  tone 
of  the  Federal  Government  in  its  intercourse  with  individuals, 
but  no  sooner  has  it  anything  to  do  with  a  State  than  it  begins 
to  parley,  to  explain  its  motives  and  to  justify  its  conduct,  to 
argue,  to  advise,  and,  in  short,  anything  but  to  command.  If 
doubts  are  raised  as  to  the  limits  of  the  constitutional  powers  of 
each  government,  the  provincial  government  prefers  its  claim 
with  boldness,  and  takes  prompt  and  energetic  steps  to  support 
it.  In  the  mean  while  the  Government  of  the  Union  reasons ; 
it  appeals  to  the  interests,  to  the  good  sense,  to  the  glory  of  the 
nation  ;  it  temporizes,  it  negotiates,  and  does  not  consent  to  act 
until  it  is  reduced  to  the  last  extremity.  At  first  sight  it  might 
readily  be  imagined  that  it  is  the  provincial  government  which 
is  armed  with  the  authority  of  the  nation,  and  that  Congress  rep- 
resents a  single  State. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


393 


The  Federal  Government  is,  therefore,  notwithstanding  the 
precautions  of  those  who  founded  it,  naturally  so  weak  that  it 
more  peculiarly  requires  the  free  consent  of  the  governed  to 
enable  it  to  subsist.  It  is  easy  to  perceive  that  its  object  is  to 
enable  the  States  to  realize  with  facility  their  determination  of 
remaining  united;  and,  as  long  as  this  preliminary  condition 
exists,  its  authority  is  great,  temperate,  and  effective.  The  Con- 
stitution fits  the  Government  to  control  individuals,  and  easily 
to  surmount  such  obstacles  as  they  may  be  inclined  to  offer ;  but 
it  was  by  no  means  established  with  a  view  to  the  possible  sep- 
aration of  one  or  more  of  the  States  from  the  Union. 

If  the  sovereignty  of  the  Union  were  to  engage  in  a  struggle 
with  that  of  the  Stotes  at  the  present  day,  its  defeat  may  be  confi- 
dently predicted;  and  it  is  not  probable  that  such  a  struggle 
would  be  seriously  undertaken.  As  often  as  a  steady  resistance 
is  offered  to  the  Federal  Government  it  will  be  found  to  yield. 
Experience  has  hitherto  shown  that  whenever  a  State  has  de- 
manded anything  with  perseverance  and  resolution,  it  has  in- 
variably  succeeded ;  and  that  if  a  separate  government  has  dis- 
tinctly refused  to  act,  it  was  left  to  do  as  it  thought  fit.^ 

But  even  if  the  Government  of  the  Union  had  any  strength 
inherent  in  itself,  the  physical  situation  of  the  country  would 
render  the  exercise  of  that  strength  very  difficult.o  The  United 
States  cover  an  immense  territory ;  they  are  separated  from  each 
other  by  great  distances;  and  the  population  is  disseminated 
over  the  surface  of  a  country  which  is  still  half  a  wilderness. 
If  the  Union  were  to  undertake  to  enforce  the  allegiance  of  the 
confederate  States  by  military  means,  it  would  be  in  a  position 
very  analogous  to  that  of  England  at  the  time  of  the  War  of 
Independence. 

However  strong  a  government  may  be,  it  cannot  easily  escape 
from  the  consequences  of  a  principle  which  it  has  once  admit- 
ted as  the  foundation  of  its  constitution.  The  Union  was 
formed  by  the  voluntary  agreement  of  the  States ;  and,  in  unit- 
ing together,  they  have  not  forfeited  their  nationality,  nor  have 


I  ■ 

^  1 


V 


f 


s  See  the  conduct  of  the  Northern 
States  in  the  war  of  1812.  "  During  that 
war,"  says  Jefferson  in  a  letter  to  Gen- 
eral Lafayette,  "  four  of  the  Eastern 
States  were  only  att-,-'.ied  to  the  Union, 
like  so  many  inanimate  bodies  to  living 
men." 

a  The  profound  peace  of  the  Union  af- 
fords no  pretext  for  a  standing  army  ; 


and  without  a  standinn;  army  a  govern- 
ment is  not  prepared  to  profit  by  a 
favorable  opportunity  to  conquer  re- 
sistance, and  take  the  sovereign  power 
by  surprise.  [This  note,  and  the  para- 
graph in  the  text  which  precedes,  have 
been  shown  by  the  results  of  the  Civil 
War  to  be  a  misconception  of  the 
writer.] 


4 


394 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


fi'.'i 


:•   i 


\    I; 


:  ■,    Yi 


'   I 


il 


I  ' 


'!     ,' 


they  been  reduced  to  the  condition  of  one  and  the  same  people. 
If  one  of  the  States  chose  to  withdraw  its  name  from  the  con- 
tract, it  would  be  difficult  to  disprove  its  right  of  doing  so ;  and 
the  Federal  Government  would  have  no  means  of  maintaining 
its  claims  directly,  either  by  force  or  by  right.  In  order  to  en- 
able the  Federal  Government  easily  to  conquer  the  resistance 
which  may  be  offered  to  it  by  any  one  of  its  subjects,  it  would 
be  necessary  that  one  or  more  of  them  should  be  specially  inter- 
ested in  the  existence  of  the  Union,  as  has  frequently  been  the 
case  in  the  history  of  confederations. 

If  it  be  supposed  that  amongst  the  States  which  are  united 
by  the  federal  tie  there  are  some  which  exclusively  enjoy  the 
principal  advantages  of  union,  or  whose  prosperity  depends  on 
the  duration  of  that  union,  it  is  unquestionable  that  they  will 
always  be  ready  to  support  the  central  Government  in  enforcing 
the  obedience  of  the  others.  But  the  Government  would  then 
be  exerting  a  force  not  derived  from  itself,  but  from  a  principle 
contrary  to  its  nature.  States  form  confederations  in  order  to 
derive  equal  advantages  from  their  union ;  and  in  the  case  just 
alluded  to,  the  Federal  Government  would  derive  its  power  from 
the  unequal  distribution  of  those  benefits  amongst  the  States. 

If  one  of  the  confederate  States  have  acquired  a  preponder- 
ance sufficiently  great  to  enable  it  to  take  exclusive  possession 
of  the  central  authority,  it  will  consider  the  other  States  as  sub- 
ject provinces,  and  it  will  cause  its  own  supremacy  to  be  re- 
spected under  the  borrowed  name  of  the  sovereignty  of  the 
Union.  Great  things  may  then  be  done  in  the  name  of  the 
Federal  Government,  but  in  reality  that  Government  will  have 
ceased  to  exist.fr  In  both  these  cases,  the  power  which  acts  in 
the  name  of  the  confederation  becomes  stronger  the  more  it 
abandons  the  natural  state  and  the  acknowledged  principles  of 
confederations. 

In  America  the  existing  Union  is  advantageous  to  all  the 
States,  but  it  is  not  indispensable  to  any  one  of  them.  Several 
of  them  might  break  the  federal  tie  without  compromising  the 
welfare  of  the  others,  although  their  own  prosperity  would  be 
lessened.  As  the  existence  and  the  happiness  of  none  of  the 
States  are  wholly  dependent  on  the  present  Constitution,  they 


b  Thus  the  province  of  Holland  in  the 
republic  of  the  Low  Countries,  and 
the  Emperor  -n  the  Germanic  Confed- 
eration, hav  times  put  themselves 


in  the  place  of  the  union,  and  have  em- 
ployed the  federal  authority  to  their  own 
advantage. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


395 


would  none  of  them  be  disposed  to  make  great  personal  sacri- 
fices to  maintain  it.  On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  State  which 
seems  hitherto  to  have  its  ambition  much  interested  in  the  main- 
tenance of  the  existing  Union.  They  certainly  do  not  all  exer- 
cise the  same  influence  in  the  federal  councils,  but  no  one  of 
them  can  hope  to  domineer  over  the  rest,  or  to  treat  them  as  its 
inferiors  or  as  its  subjects. 

It  appears  to  me  unquestionable  that  if  any  portion  of  the 
Union  seriously  desired  to  separate  itself  from  the  other  States, 
they  would  not  be  able,  nor  indeed  would  they  attempt,  to  pre- 
vent it ;  and  that  the  present  Union  will  onl);  last  as  long  as  the 
States  which  compose  it  •--".'-e  to  continue  membeis  of  the 
confederation.  If  this  poin.  o  admitted,  the  question  becomes 
less  difficult;  and  our  object  is,  not  to  inquire  whether  the 
States  of  the  existing  Union  are  capable  of  separating,  but 
whether  they  will  choose  to  remain  united. 

Amongst  the  various  reasons  which  tend  to  render  the  exist- 
ing Union  useful  to  the  Americans,  two  principal  causes  are 
peculiarly  evident  to  the  observer.  Although  the  Americans 
are,  as  it  were,  alone  upon  their  continent,  their  commerce 
makes  them  the  neighbors  of  all  the  nations  with  which  they 
trade.  Notwithstanding  their  apparent  isolation,  the  Ameri- 
cans require  a  certain  degree  of  strength,  which  they  cannot 
retain  otherwise  than  by  remaining  united  to  each  othe;.  If 
the  States  were  to  split,  they  would  not  only  diminish  the 
strength  which  they  are  now  able  to  display  towards  foreign 
nations,  but  they  would  soon  create  foreign  powers  upon  their 
own  territory.  A  system  of  inland  custom-houses  would  then 
be  established ;  the  valleys  would  be  divided  by  imaginary  boun- 
dary lines  ;  the  courses  of  the  rivers  would  be  confined  by  terri- 
torial distinctions;  and  a  multitude  of  hindrances  would  pre- 
vent the  Americans  from  exploring  the  whole  of  that  vast  conti- 
nent which  Providence  has  allotted  to  them  for  a  dominion.  At 
present  they  have  no  invasion  to  fear,  and  consequently  no 
standing  armies  to  maintain,  no  taxes  to  levy.  If  the  Union 
were  dissolved,  all  these  burdensome  measures  might  ere  long 
be  required.  The  Americans  are  then  very  powerfully  inter- 
ested in  the  maintenance  of  their  Union.  On  the  other  hand, 
it  is  almost  impossible  to  discover  any  sort  of  material  interest 
which  might  at  present  tempt  a  portion  of  the  Union  to  separate 
from  the  other  States. 

When  we  cast  our  eyes  upon  the  map  of  the  United  States, 


'    ^1 


''ft 


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'  m 


'.y 


( 


I 


396 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


iV^k 


(  I 


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(i.  I  ii 


« 1 


I '  if 


I  I 


.*' 


we  perceive  the  chain  of  the  Alleghany  Mountains,  running 
from  the  northeast  to  the  southwest,  and  crossing  nearly  one 
thousand  miles  of  country ;  and  we  are  led  to  imagine  that  the 
design  of  ProviOcnce  was  to  raise  between  the  valley  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi and  the  coast  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  one  of  those  natural 
barriers  which  break  the  mutual  intercourse  of  men,  and  form 
the  necessary  limits  of  different  States.  But  the  average  height 
of  t.ie  Alleghanies  does  not  c-^ceed  2,500  feet;  their  greatest 
elevation  is  not  f  ^ve  4,000  feet ;  their  rounded  summits,  and 
the  spacious  valleys  which  they  conceal  within  their  passes,  are 
of  easy  access  from  several  sides.  Besides  which,  the  principal 
livers  which  fall  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean — the  Hudson,  the  Sus- 
quehanna, and  the  Potomac — take  their  rise  beyond  the  Alle- 
ghanies, in  an  open  district,  which  borders  upon  the  valley  of 
the  Mississippi.  These  streams  qait  this  tract  of  country,  make 
their  way  through  the  barrier  which  would  seem  to  turn  them 
westward,  and  as  they  wind  through  the  mountains  they  open 
an  easy  and  natural  passage  to  man.  No  natural  ^  .ier  exists 
in  the  regions  which  are  now  inhabited  by  the jlo- Ameri- 
cans ;  the  Alleghanies  are  so  far  from  serving  as  a  boundary  to 
separate  nations,  that  they  do  not  even  serve  as  a  frontier  to 
the  States.  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Virginia  comprise 
them  within  their  borders,  and  they  extend  as  much  to  the  west 
as  to  the  east  of  the  line.  The  territory  now  occupied  by  the 
twenty-four  States  of  the  Union,  and  the  three  great  districts 
which  have  not  yet  acquired  the  rank  of  States,  although  they 
already  contain  inhabitants,  covers  a  surface  of  1,002,600 
square  miles,c  which  is  about  equal  to  five  times  the  extent  of 
France.  Within  these  limits  the  qualities  of  the  soil,  the  tem- 
perature, and  the  produce  of  the  country,  are  extremely  various. 
The  vast  extent  of  territory  occupied  by  the  Anglo-American 
republics  has  given  rise  to  doubts  as  to  the  maintenance  of  their 
Union.  Here  a  distinction  must  be  made;  contrary  interests 
sometimes  arise  in  the  different  provinces  of  avast  empire,  which 
often  terminate  in  open  dissensions ;  and  the  extent  of  the  coun- 
try is  then  most  prejudicial  to  the  power  of  the  State.  But  if  the 
inhabitants  of  these  vast  regions  are  not  divided  by  contrary  in- 


e  See  "  Darby's  View  of  the  United 
States,"  p.  435.  [In  1890  the  number  of 
States  and  Territories  had  increased  to 
51,  the  population  to  62,831,900,  and  the 
area  of  the  States,  3,602,990  square  miles. 
This  does  not  include  the  Philippine 
Islands,  Hawaii,  or  Porto  Rico.  A  con- 
servative estimate  of  the  population  of 


the  Philippine  Islands  is  8,000,000;  that 
of  Hawaii,  by  the  census  of  1897,  was 
given  at  109,020;  and  the  present  esti- 
mated population  of  Porto  Kico  is  900,- 
000.  The  area  of  the  Philippine  Islands 
is  about  120,000  square  miles,  that  of  Ha- 
waii is  6.7<io  square  miles,  and  the  area 
of  Porto  Rico  is  about  3,600  square  miles.] 


'       I'.J 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


397 


terests,  the  extent  of  the  territory  may  be  favorable  to  their 
prosperity ;  for  the  unity  of  the  government  promotes  the  inter- 
change of  the  different  productions  of  the  soil,  and  increases 
their  value  by  facilitating  their  consumption. 

It  is  indeed  easy  to  discover  different  interests  in  the  diflfer- 
ent  parts  of  the  Union,  but  I  am  unacquainted  with  any  which 
are  hostile  to  each  other.  The  Southern  States  are  almost  ex- 
clusively agricultural.  The  Northern  States  are  more  pecu- 
liarly commercial  and  manufacturing.  The  States  of  the  West 
are  at  the  same  time  agricultural  and  manufacturing.  In  the 
South  the  crops  consist  of  tobacco,  of  rice,  of  cotton,  and  of 
sugar ;  in  the  North  and  the  West,  of  wheat  and  maize.  These 
are  different  sources  of  wealth ;  but  union  is  the  means  by  which 
these  sources  are  opened  to  all,  and  rendered  equally  advan- 
tageous to  the  several  districts. 

The  North,  which  ships  the  produce  of  the  Anglo-Americans 
to  all  parts  of  the  world,  and  brings  back  the  produce  of  the 
globe  to  the  Union,  is  evidently  interested  in  maintaining  the 
confederation  in  its  present  condition,  in  order  that  the  number 
of  American  producers  and  consumers  may  remain  as  large  as 
possible.  The  North  is  the  most  natural  agent  of  communica- 
tion between  the  South  and  the  West  of  the  Union  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  rest  of  the  world  upon  the  other;  the  North  is 
therefore  interested  in  the  union  and  prosperity  of  the  South 
and  the  West,  in  order  that  they  may  continue  to  furnish  raw 
materials  for  its  manufactures,  and  cargoes  for  its  shipping. 

The  South  and  the  West,  on  their  side,  are  still  more  directly 
interested  in  the  preservation  of  the  Union,  and  the  prosperity 
of  the  North.  The  produce  of  the  South  is,  for  the  most  part, 
exported  beyond  seas ;  the  South  and  the  West  consequently 
stand  in  need  of  the  commercial  resources  of  the  North.  They 
are  likewise  interested  in  the  maintenance  of  a  powerful  fleet 
by  the  Union,  to  protect  them  efficaciously.  The  South  and 
the  West  have  no  vessels,  but  they  cannot  refuse  a  willing  sub- 
sidy to  defray  the  expenses  of  the  navy;  for  if  the  fleets  of 
Europe  were  to  blockade  the  ports  of  the  South  and  the  delta 
of  the  Mississippi,  what  would  become  of  the  rice  of  the  Caro- 
linas,  the  tobacco  of  Virginia,  and  the  sugar  and  cotton  which 
grow  in  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi?  Every  portion  of  the 
federal  budget  does  therefore  contribute  to  the  maintenance  of 
material  interests  which  are  common  to  all  the  confederate 
States. 


f  I 


i 


: 


'      : 


398 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


I    ), 


:t 


■;  !'-.-v 


if  7. 


(r 
it  •' . ' ' 


U!- 


Independently  ol  this  commercial  utility,  the  South  and  the 
West  of  the  Union  derive  great  political  advantages  from  their 
connection  with  the  North.  The  South  contains  an  enormous 
slave  population ;  a  population  which  is  already  alarming,  and 
still  more  formidable  for  the  future.  The  States  of  the  West 
lie  in  the  remotest  parts  of  a  single  valley ;  and  all  the  rivers 
which  intersect  their  territory  rise  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  or 
in  the  Alleghanies,  and  fall  into  the  Mississippi,  which  bears 
them  onwards  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  The  Western  States  are 
consequently  entirely  cut  off,  by  their  position,  from  the  tradi- 
tions of  Europe  and  the  civilization  of  the  Old  World.  The 
inhabitants  of  the  South,  then,  are  induced  to  support  the  Union 
in  order  to  avail  themselves  of  its  protection  against  the  blacks ; 
and  the  inhabitants  of  the  West  in  order  not  to  be  excluded 
from  a  free  communication  with  the  rest  of  the  globe,  and  shut 
up  in  the  wilds  of  central  America.  The  North  cannot  but  de- 
sire the  maintenance  of  the  Union,  in  order  to  remain,  as  it  now 
is,  the  connecting  link  between  that  vast  body  and  the  other 
parts  of  the  world. 

The  temporal  interests  of  all  the  several  parts  of  the  Union 
are,  then,  intimately  connected ;  and  the  same  assertion  holds 
true  respecting  those  opinions  and  sentiments  which  may  be 
termed  the  immaterial  interests  of  men. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  United  States  talk  a  great  deal  of  their 
attachment  to  their  country ;  but  I  confess  that  I  do  not  rely 
upon  that  calculating  patriotism  which  is  founded  upon  in«:er- 
est,  and  which  a  change  in  the  interests  at  stake  may  obliterate. 
Nor  do  I  attach  much  importance  to  the  language  of  the  Ameri- 
cans, when  they  manifest,  in  their  daily  conversations,  the  in- 
tention of  maintaining  the  federal  system  adopted  by  their  fore- 
fathers. A  government  retains  its  sway  over  a  great  number 
of  citizens,  far  less  by  the  voluntary  and  rational  consent  of  the 
multitude,  than  by  that  instinctive,  and  to  a  certain  extent  in- 
voluntary agreement,  which  results  from  similarity  of  feelings 
and  resemblances  of  opinion.  I  ^w^\^  *">ever  admit  that  men  con- 
stitute a  social  body,  simply  becau.  they  obey  the  same  head 
and  the  same  laws.  Society  can  only  exist  when  a  great  num- 
ber of  men  consider  a  great  number  of  things  in  the  same  point 
of  view ;  when  they  hold  the  same  opinions  upon  many  subjects, 
and  when  the  same  occurrences  suggest  the  same  thoughts  and 
impressions  to  their  minds. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


399 


The  observer  who  examines  the  present  condition  of  the 
United  States  upon  tiiis  principle,  will  readily  discover,  that 
although  the  citizens  are  divided  into  twenty-four  distinct  sov- 
ereignties, they  nevertheless  constitute  a  single  people ;  and  he 
may  perhaps  be  led  to  think  that  the  state  of  the  Anglo-Ameri- 
can Union  is  more  truly  a  state  of  society  than  that  of  certain 
nations  of  Europe  which  live  under  the  same  legislation  and 
the  same  prince. 

Although  the  Anglo-Americans  have  several  religious  sects, 
they  all  regard  religion  in  the  same  manner.  They  arc  not 
always  agreed  upon  the  measures  which  are  most  conducive  to 
good  government,  and  they  vary  upon  some  of  the  forms  of 
government  which  it  is  expedient  to  adopt ;  but  they  are  unani- 
mous upon  the  general  principles  which  ought  to  rule  human 
society.  From  Maine  to  the  Floridas,  and  from  the  Missouri 
to  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  the  people  is  held  to  be  the  legitimate 
source  of  all  power.  The  same  notions  are  entertained  respect- 
ing liberty  and  equality,  the  liberty  of  the  press,  the  right  of 
association,  the  jury,  and  the  responsibility  of  the  agents  of 
Government. 

If  we  turn  from  their  political  and  religious  opinions  to  the 
moral  and  philosophical  principles  which  regulate  the  daily 
actions  of  life  and  govern  their  conduct,  we  shall  still  find  the 
same  uniformity.  The  Anglo-Americans  d  acknowledge  the 
absolute  moral  authority  of  the  reason  of  the  community,  as 
they  acknowledge  the  political  authority  of  the  mass  of  citizens ; 
and  they  hold  that  public  opinion  is  the  surest  arbiter  of  what 
is  lawful  or  forbidden,  true  or  false.  The  majority  of  them  be- 
lieve that  a  man  will  be  led  to  do  what  is  just  and  good  by  fol- 
lowing his  own  interest  rightly  understood.  They  hold  that 
every  man  is  born  in  possession  of  the  right  of  self-government, 
and  that  no  one  has  the  right  of  constraining  his  fellow- 
creatures  to  be  happy.  They  have  all  a  lively  faith  in  the  per- 
fectibility of  man ;  they  are  of  opinion  that  the  effects  of  the 
diffusion  of  knowledge  must  necessarily  be  advantageous,  and 
the  consequences  of  ignorance  fatal ;  they  all  consider  society 
as  a  body  in  a  state  of  improvement,  humanity  as  a  changing 
scene,  in  which  nothing  is,  or  ought  to  be,  permanent ;  and  they 


olt  is  scarcely  necessary  for  me  to 
observe  that  by  the  expression  Anglo- 
Americans.  I  only  mean  to  desi);nate  the 
great  majority  of  the  nation  ;  for  a  cer- 


tain number  of  isolated  individuals  are 
of  course  to  be  met  with  holding  very 
different  opinions. 


400 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


I 


\    I 


\  .,  ';! 


'J       I 


I     -' 


admit  that  what  appears  to  them  to  he  pood  to-day  may  be 
superseded  by  something  better  to-morrow.  1  do  not  give  all 
these  opinions  as  true,  but  I  quote  them  as  characteristic  of  the 
Americans. 

The  Anglo-Americans  are  not  only  united  together  by  these 
common  opinions,  but  they  are  separated  from  all  other  na- 
tions by  a  common  feeling  of  pride.  For  the  last  fifty  years  no 
pains  have  been  spared  to  convince  the  inhabitants  of  the  United 
States  that  they  constitute  the  only  religious,  enlightened,  and 
free  people.  They  perct've  that,  for  the  present,  their  own 
democratic  institutions  succeed,  whilst  those  of  other  countries 
fail ;  hence  they  conceive  an  overweening  opinion  of  their  su- 
periority, and  they  are  not  very  remote  from  believing  them- 
selves to  belong  to  a  distinct  race  of  mankind. 

The  dangers  which  threaten  the  American  Union  do  not 
originate  in  the  diversity  of  interests  or  of  opinions,  but  in  the 
various  characters  and  passions  of  the  Americans.  The  men 
who  inhabit  the  vast  territory  of  the  United  States  are  almost 
all  the  issue  of  a  common  stock ;  but  the  effects  of  the  climate, 
and  more  especially  of  slavery,  have  gradually  introduced  very 
striking  differences  between  the  British  settler  of  the  Southern 
States  and  the  British  settler  of  the  North.  In  Europe  it  is  gen- 
erally believed  that  slavery  has  rendered  the  interests  of  one 
part  of  the  Union  contrary  to  those  of  another  part ;  but  I  by 
no  means  remarked  this  to  be  the  case :  slavery  has  not  created 
interests  in  the  South  contrary  to  those  of  the  North,  but  it  has 
modified  the  character  and  changed  the  habits  of  the  natives  of 
the  South. 

I  have  already  explained  the  influence  which  slavery  has 
exercised  upon  the  commercial  ability  of  the  Americans  in  the 
South ;  and  this  same  influence  equally  extends  to  their  man- 
ners. The  slave  is  a  servant  who  never  remonstrates,  and  who 
submits  to  everything  without  complaint.  He  may  sometimes 
assassinate,  but  he  never  withstands,  his  master.  In  the  South 
there  are  no  families  so  poor  as  not  to  have  slaves.  The  citizen 
of  the  Southern  States  of  the  Union  is  invested  with  a  sort  of 
domestic  dictatorship,  from  his  earliest  years ;  the  first  notion 
he  acquires  in  life  is  that  he  is  born  to  command,  and  the  first 
habit  which  he  contracts  is  that  of  being  obeyed  without  resist- 
ance. His  cdncntion  tends,  then,  to  srive  him  the  character  of  a 
supercilious  and  a  hasty  man ;  irascible,  violent,  and  ardent  in 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


4*1 


his  desires,  inipatic*iit  of  obstacles,  but  easily  discouraged  if  he 
cannot  succeed  upon  his  first  attempt. 

The  American  of  the  Northern  States  is  surrounded  by  no 
slaves  in  his  childhood  ;  he  is  even  unattended  by  free  servants, 
and  16  usually  obliged  to  provide  for  his  own  wants.  No  sooner 
does  he  enter  the  world  than  the  idea  of  necessity  assails  hini  on 
every  side:  he  soon  learns  to  know  exactly  the  natural  limit 
of  his  authority ;  he  never  expects  to  subdue  those  who  with- 
stand him,  by  force ;  and  he  knows  that  the  surest  means  of 
obtaining  the  support  of  his  fellow-creatures,  is  to  win  their 
favor.  He  therefore  becomes  patient,  reflecting,  tolerant,  slow 
to  act,  and  persevering  in  his  designs. 

In  the  Southern  States  the  more  immediate  wants  of  life  are 
always  supplied  ;  the  inhabitants  of  those  parti  are  not  busied 
in  the  material  cares  of  life,  wMch  are  always  provided  for  by 
others ;  and  their  imagination  s  diverted  to  more  captivating 
and  less  definite  objects.  The  American  cf  the  South  is  fond  of 
grandeur,  luxury,  and  renown,  of  ga)  c  ly,  o;  pleasure,  and  above 
all  of  idleness;  nothing  obliges  him  to  '  .<ert  hitr  elf  in  order 
to  subsist;  and  as  he  has  no  necessary  occupati  7S,  he  gives 
way  to  indolence,  and  does  not  even  attempt  '/  )at  would  be 
useful. 

But  the  equality  of  fortunes,  and  tl  e  absence  of  slrv-y  in 
the  North,  plunge  the  inhabitants  in  t  lOse  same  cares  of  daily 
life  which  are  disdained  by  the  white  population  of  the  South. 
They  are  taught  from  infancy  to  combat  want,  and  to  place 
comfort  above  all  the  pleasures  of  the  intellect  or  the  heart. 
The  imagination  is  extinguished  by  the  trivial  details  of  life,  and 
the  ideas  become  less  numerous  and  less  general,  but  far  more 
practical  and  more  precise.  As  prosperity  is  the  sole  aim  of  ex- 
ertion, it  is  excellently  well  attained ;  nature  and  mankind  are 
turned  to  the  best  pecuniary  advantage,  and  society  is  dexter- 
ously made  to  contribute  to  the  welfare  of  each  of  its  members, 
whilst  individual  egotism  '"  the  source  of  general  happiness. 

The  citizen  of  the  Nor.'  ^-  j  not  only  experience,  but  knowl- 
edge :  nevertheless  he  sets  but  little  value  upon  the  pleasures  of 
knowledge ;  he  esteems  it  as  the  means  of  attaining  a  certain 
end,  and  he  is  only  a  ixious  to  seize  its  more  lucrative  applica- 
tions. The  citi/er.  of  the  South  is  more  given  to  act  upon  im- 
pulse; he  is  more  clever,  more  frank,  more  generous,  more 
intellectual,  and  more  brilliant.  The  former,  with  a  greater  de- 
VOL.  I.— 26 


1! 


I 


J'l 


'.i' 


c, 


403 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


ill 


gree  of  activity,  of  common-sense,  of  information,  and  of  gen- 
eral aptitude,  has  the  characteristic  good  and  evil  quahties  of 
the  middle  classes.  The  latter  has  the  tastes,  the  prejudices,  the 
weaknesses,  and  the  magnanimity  of  all  aristocracies.  If  two 
men  are  united  in  society,  who  have  the  same  interests,  and  to  a 
certain  extent  the  same  opinions,  but  dififerent  characters,  dif- 
ferent acquirements,  and  a  dififerent  style  of  civilization,  it  is 
probable  that  these  men  will  not  agree.  The  same  remark  is 
applicable  to  a  society  of  nations.  Slavery,  then,  does  not 
attack  the  American  Union  directly  in  its  interests,  but  indi- 
rectly in  its  manners. 

The  States  which  gave  their  assent  to  the  federal  contract  in 
1790  were  thirteen  in  number;  the  Union  now  consists  of 
thirty-four  members.  The  population,  which  amounted  to 
nearly  4,000,000  in  1790,  had  more  than  tripled  in  the  space 
of  forty  years;  and  in  1830  it  amounted  to  nearly  13,000,000.^ 
Changes  of  such  magnitude  cannot  take  place  without  some 
danger. 

A  society  of  nations,  as  well  as  a  society  of  individuals,  de- 
rives its  principal  chances  of  duration  from  the  wisdom  of  its 
members,  their  individual  weakness,  and  their  limited  number. 
The  Americans  who  quit  the  coasts  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean  to 
plunge  into  the  western  wilderness,  are  adventurers  impatient 
of  restraint,  greedy  of  wealth,  and  frequently  men  expelled  from 
the  States  in  which  they  were  born.  When  they  arrive  in  the 
deserts  they  are  unknown  to  each  other,  and  they  have  neither 
traditions,  family  feeling,  nor  the  force  of  example  to  check 
their  excesses.  The  empire  of  the  laws  is  feeble  amongst  them  ; 
that  of  morality  is  still  more  powerless.  The  settlers  who  are 
constantly  peopling  the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  are,  then,  in 
every  respect  very  inferior  to  the  Americans  who  inhabit  the 
older  parts  of  the  Union.  Nevertheless,  they  already  exercise 
a  great  influence  in  its  councils ;  and  they  arrive  at  the  govern- 
ment of  the  commonwealth  before  they  have  learnt  to  govern 
themselves.^ 

The  greater  the  individual  weakness  of  each  of  the  contract- 
ing parties,  the  greater  are  the  chances  of  the  duration  of  the 
contract ;  for  their  safety  is  then  dependent  upon  their  union. 


*  Census  of  1790,  3,939,328  ;  1830,  12,- 
856,165;  i860,  31,443,321;  1870,  38,555,983; 
1890,  62.831,000. 

/  This  indeed  is  only  a  temporary  dan- 
ger.   I  have  no  doubt  that  in  time  so- 


ciety will  assume  as  much  stability  and 
reffularity  in  the  West  as  it  has  already 
done  upon  the  coast  of  the  Atlantic 
Ocean. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


403 


When,  in  1790,  the  most  populous  of  the  American  republics 
did  not  contain  500,000  inhabitants,?  each  of  them  felt  its  own 
insignificance  as  an  independent  people,  and  this  feeling  ren- 
dered compliance  with  the  federal  authority  more  easy.  But 
when  one  of  the  confederate  States  reckons,  like  the  State  of 
New  York,  2,000,000  of  inhabitants,  and  covers  an  extent  of 
territory  equal  in  surface  to  a  quarter  of  France,'*  it  feels  its  own 
strength ;  and  although  it  may  continue  to  support  the  Union 
as  advantageous  to  its  prosperity,  it  no  longer  regards  that  body 
as  necessary  to  its  existence ;  and  as  it  continues  to  belong  to 
the  federal  compact,  it  soon  aims  at  preponderance  in  the 
federal  assemblies.  The  probable  unanimity  of  the  States  is 
diminished  as  their  number  increases.  At  present  the  interests 
of  the  different  parts  of  the  Union  are  not  at  variance ;  but  who 
is  able  to  foresee  the  multifarious  changes  of  the  future,  in  a 
country  in  which  towns  are  founded  from  day  to  day,  and  States 
almost  from  year  to  year  ? 

Since  the  first  settlement  of  the  British  colonies,  the  number 
of  inhabitants  has  about  doubled  every  twenty-two  years.  I 
perceive  no  causes  which  are  likely  to  check  this  progressive 
increase  of  the  Anglo-American  population  for  the  next  hun- 
dred years ;  and  before  that  space  of  time  has  elapsed,  I  believe 
that  the  territories  and  dependencies  of  the  United  States  will 
be  covered  by  more  than  100,000,000  of  inhabitants,  and  di- 
vided into  forty  States.*  I  admit  that  these  100,000,000  of  men 
have  no  hostile  interests.  I  suppose,  on  the  contrary,  that  they 
are  all  equally  interested  in  the  maintenance  of  the  Union  ;  but 
I  am  still  of  opinion  that  where  there  are  100,000,000  of  men, 
and  forty  distinct  nations,  unequally  strong,  the  continuance 
of  the  Federal  Government  can  only  be  a  fortunate  accident. 


•/ 


I'i 


(P  Pennsylvania  contained  43i>373  ">• 
habitants  in  1790  [and  5,258,014  in  1890I. 

h  The  area  of  the  State  of  New  York 
is  49,170  square  miles.  [Sec  U.  S.  cen- 
sus report  of  1890.] 

t  If  fhe  population  continues  to  double 
every  twenty-two  years,  as  it  has  done 
for  the  last  two  hundred  years,  the  num- 
ber of  inbahitants  in  the  United,  States 
in  1852  will  be  twenty  millions  ;  in  1874, 
forty-eiRht  millions  ;  and  in  1896,  ninety- 
six  millions.  This  may  still  be  the  case 
even  if  the  lands  on  the  western  slope  of 
the  Rocky  Mountains  should  be  found 
to  be  unfit  for  cultivation.  The  territory 
■which  is  alreadv  occupied  can  easily 
contain  this  number  of  inhabitants.  One 
hundred  millions  of  men  disseminated 
over    the    surface    of    the    twenty-four 


States,  and  the  three  dependencies, 
which  constitute  the  Union,  would  only 
give  762  inhabitants  to  the  square 
league  ;  this  would  be  far  below  the 
mean  population  of  France,  which  is 
1,063  to  the  square  league  ;  or  of  Eng' 


id. 


land,  which  is  1,457  !  and  it  would  even 
be  below  the  population  of  Switzerland, 
for  that  country,  notwithstanding  its 
lakes  and  mountains,  contains  783  in- 
habitants to  the  square  league.  See 
"  Malte  Brun,"  vol.  vi.  p.  92. 

[The  actual  result  has  fallen  somewhat 
short  of  these  calculations,  in  spite  of 
the  vast  territorial  acquisitions  of  the 
United  States:  but  in  1899  the  popula- 
tion is  probably  about  eiRhty-seven  mil- 
lions, including  the  popul.ntion  of  the 
Philippines,  Hawaii,  and  Porto  Rico.] 


404 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


^    k'( 


Whatever  faith  I  may  have  in  the  perfectibility  of  man,  until 
human  nature  is  altered,  and  men  wholly  transformed,  I  shall 
refuse  to  believe  in  the  duration  of  a  government  which  is  called 
upon  to  hold  together  forty  different  peoples,  disseminated 
over  a  territory  equal  to  one-half  of  Europe  in  extent ;  to  avoid 
all  rivalry,  ambition,  and  struggles  between  them,  and  to  direct 
their  independent  activity  to  the  accomplishment  of  the  same 
designs. 

But  the  greatest  peril  to  which  the  Union  is  exposed  by  its 
increase  arises  from  the  continual  changes  which  take  place  in 
the  position  of  its  internal  stiength.  The  distance  from  Lake 
Superior  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico  extends  from  the  47th  to  the 
30th  degree  of  latitude,  a  distance  of  more  than  1,200  miles  as 
the  bird  flies.  The  frontier  of  the  United  States  winds  along  the 
whole  of  this  immense  line,  sometimes  falling  within  its  limits, 
but  more  frequently  extending  far  beyond  it,  into  the  waste.  It 
has  been  calculated  that  the  whites  advance  every  year  a  mean 
distance  of  seventeen  miles  along  the  whole  of  his  vast  boun- 
dary.; Obstacles,  such  as  an  unproductive  district,  a  lake  or  an 
Indian  nation  unexpectedly  encountered,  are  sometimes  met 
with.  The  advancing  column  then  halts  for  a  while ;  its  two 
extremities  fall  b?,ck  upon  themselves,  and  as  soon  as  they  are 
reunited  they  prc/ceed  onwards.  This  gradual  and  continuous 
progress  of  the  Ei:r'^p''?.n  race  towards  the  Rocky  Mountains 
has  the  solemnity  of  a  providential  event ;  it  is  like  a  deluge  of 
men  rising  unabatedly,  and  daily  driven  onwards  by  the  hand  of 
God. 

Within  this  first  line  of  conquering  settlers  towns  are  built, 
and  vast  States  founded.  In  1790  there  were  only  a  few  thou- 
sand pioneers  sprinkled  along  the  valleys  of  the  Mississippi ; 
and  at  the  present  day  these  valleys  contain  as  many  inhabitants 
as  were  to  be  found  in  the  whole  Union  in  1790.  Their  popu- 
lation amounts  to  nearly  4,000,000.*  The  city  of  Washington 
was  founded  in  1800,  in  the  very  centre  of  the  Union ;  but  such 
are  the  changes  which  have  taken  place,  that  it  now  stands  at 
one  of  the  extremities ;  and  the  delegates  of  the  most  remote 
Western  States  are  already  obliged  to  perform  a  journey  as  long 
as  that  from  Vienna  to  Paris.^ 


y  See    Legislative    Documents,    aoth 
CotiRress,  No.  117,  p.  105. 
A;  3,672,3:7— Census  of  1830. 
/The    distance    from    Jefferson,    the 


capital  of  the  State  of  Missouri,  to 
Washington  is  1,019  miles.  ("  American 
Almanac,"  1831,  p.  48.) 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


405 


//( 


are 


All  the  States  are  borne  onwards  at  the  same  time  in  the  path 
of  fortune,  but  of  course  they  do  not  all  increase  and  prosper 
Iri  the  same  proportion.  To  the  North  of  the  Union  the  de- 
tached branches  of  the  Alleghany  chain,  which  extend  as  far  as 
the  Atlantic  Ocean,  form  spacious  roads  and  ports,  which  are 
constantly  accessible  to  vessels  of  the  greatest  burden.  But 
from  the  Potomac  to  the  mouth  of  the  Mississippi  the  coast  is 
sandy  and  flat.  In  this  part  of  the  Union  the  mouths  of  almost 
all  the  rivers  are  obstructed ;  and  the  few  harbors  which  exist 
amongst  these  lagoons  aflford  much  shallower  water  to  ves- 
sels, and  much  fewer  commercial  advantages  than  those  of  the 
North. 

This  first  natural  cause  of  inferiority  is  united  to  another 
cause  proceeding  from  the  laws.  We  have  already  seen  that 
slavery,  which  is  abolished  in  the  North,  still  exists  in  the 
South ;  and  I  have  pointed  out  its  fatal  consequences  upon  the 
prosperity  of  the  planter  himself. 

The  North  is  therefore  superior  to  the  South  both  in  com- 
merce *n  and  manufacture ;  the  natural  consequence  of  which  is 
the  more  rapid  increase  of  population  and  of  wealth  within  its 
borders.  The  States  situate  upon  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  are  already  half-peopled.  Most  of  the  land  is  held  by 
an  owner ;  and  these  districts  cannot  therefore  receive  so  many 
emigrants  as  the  Western  States,  where  a  boundless  field  is  still 
open  to  their  exertions.  The  valley  of  the  Mississippi  is  far 
more  fertile  than  the  coast  of  the  Atlantic  Ocean.  This  rea- 
son, added  to  all  the  others,  contributes  to  drive  the  Europeans 
westward — a  fact  which  may  be  rigorously  demonstrated  by 


m  The  followinf?  statements  will  suffice 
to  show  the  difference  which  exists  be- 
tween the  commerce  of  the  South  and 
that  of  the  North:— 

In  1829  the  tonnage  of  all  the  mer- 
chant vessels  belonging  to  Virginia,  the 
two  Carolinas,  ancf  Georgia  (the  four 
great  Southern  States),  amounted  to 
only  5,243  tons.  In  the  same  year  the 
tonnage  of  the  vessels  of  the  State  of 
Massachusetts  alone  amounted  to  17,322 
tons.  (See  Legislative  Documents,  21st 
Congress,  2d  session.  No.  140,  p.  244.) 
Thus  the  State  of  Massachusetts  had 
three  times  as  much  shipping  as  the 
four  above-mentioned  States.  Neverthe- 
less the  area  of  the  State  of  Massachu- 
setts is  only  7,33s  square  miles,  and  its 
population  amounts  to  610,014  inhabi- 
tants [2,238,943  in  1890];  whilst  the  area 
of  the  four  other  States  I  have  quoted  is 
210,000  square  miles,  and  their  popula- 
tion  3,047,767.    Thus   the   area    of   the 


State  of  Massachusetts  forms  only  one- 
thirtieth  part  of  the  area  of  the  four 
States;  and  its  population  is  five  times 
smaller  than  theirs.  (See  "  Darby's 
View  of  the  United  States.'")  Slavery 
is  prejudicial  to  the  commercial  pros- 
perity of  the  South  in  several  different 
ways;  by  diminishing  the  spirit  of  enter- 
prise amongst  the  whites,  and  by  pre- 
venting them  from  meeting  with  as 
numerous  a  class  of  sailors  as  they  re- 
quire. Sailors  are  usually  taken  from 
the  lowest  ranks  of  the  population.  Hut 
in  the  Southern  States  these  lowest 
ranks  are  composed  of  slaves,  and  it  is 
very  difficult  to  employ  them  at  sea. 
They  are  unable  to  serve  as  well  as  a 
white  crew,  and  apprehensions  would 
always  be  entertained  of  their  mutiny- 
ing tn  the  middle  of  the  ocean,  or  of 
their  escaping  in  the  foreign  countries 
at  which  they  might  touch. 


X: 


406 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


figures.  It  is  found  that  the  sum  total  of  the  population  of  all 
the  United  States  has  about  tripled  in  the  course  of  forty  years. 
But  in  the  recent  States  adjacent  to  the  Mississippi,  the  popula- 
tion has  increased  thirty-one-fold,  within  the  same  space  of 
time.w 

The  relative  position  of  the  central  federal  power  is  continu- 
ally displaced.  Forty  years  ago  the  majority  of  the  citizens  of 
the  Union  was  established  upon  the  coast  of  the  Atlantic,  in 
the  environs  of  the  spot  upon  which  Washington  now  stands ; 
but  the  great  body  of  the  people  is  now  advancing  inland  and 
to  the  north,  so  that  in  twenty  years  the  majority  will  unques- 
tionably be  on  the  western  side  of  the  Alleghanies.  If  the 
Union  goes  on  to  subsist,  the  basin  of  the  Mississippi  is  evi- 
dently marked  out,  by  its  fertility  and  its  extent,  as  the  future 
centre  of  the  Federal  Government.  In  thirty  or  forty  years, 
that  tract  of  country  will  have  assumed  the  rank  which  naturally 
belongs  to  it.  It  is  easy  to  calculate  that  its  population,  com- 
pared to  that  of  the  coast  of  the  Atlantic,  will  be,  in  round  num- 
bers, as  40  to  II.  In  a  few  years  the  States  which  founded  the 
Union  will  lose  the  direction  of  its  policy,  and  the  population  of 
the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  will  preponderate  in  the  federal 
assemblies. 

This  constant  gravitation  of  the  federal  power  and  influence 
towards  the  northwest  is  shown  every  ten  years,  when  a  general 
census  of  the  population  is  made,  and  the  number  of  delegates 
which  each  State  sends  to  Congress  is  settled  afresh.o  In  1790 
Virginia  had  nineteen  representatives  in  Congress.  This  num- 
ber continued  to  increase  until  the  year  1813,  when  it  reached  to 
twenty-three ;  from  that  time  it  began  to  decrease,  and  in  1833 
Virginia  elected  only  twenty-one  representatives./*    During  the 


M "  Darby's  View  of  the  United 
States,"  p.  d44. 

0  It  may  be  seen  that  in  the  course 
of  the  last  ten  years  (1820-1830)  the  pop- 
ulation of  one  district,  as,  for  instance, 
the  State  of  Delaware,  has  increased  in 
the  proportion  of  five  per  cent. ;  whilst 
that  of  another,  as  the  territory  of 
Michigan,  has  increased  250  per  cent. 
Thus  the  population  of  Virginia  had 
augmented  thirteen  per  cent.,  and  that 
of  the  border  State  of  Ohio  sixty-one 
per  cent.,  in  the  same  space  of  time. 
The  general  table  of  these  changes, 
which  is  given  in  the  "  National  Calen- 
dar," displays  a  striking  picture  of  the 
unequal  fortunes  of  the  different  States. 

p  It  has  iust  been  said  that  in  the 
course  of  the  last  term  the  population 
of   Virginia   has   increased   thirteen  per 


cent. ;  and  it  is  necessary  to  explain  how 
the  number  of  representatives  for  a  State 
may  decrease,  when  the  population  of 
that  State,  far  from  diminishing,  is  act- 
ually upon  the  increase.  I  take  the 
State  of  Virginia,  to  which  I  have  al- 
ready alluded,  as  my  term  of  compari- 
son. The  number  of  representatives  of 
Virginia  in  1823  was  proportionate  to 
the  total  number  of  the  representatives 
of  the  Union,  and  to  the  relation  which 
the  population  bore  to  that  of  the 
whole  Union:  in  1833  the  number  of 
renresentatives  of  Virginia  was  likewise 
proportionate  to  the  total  number  of 
the  representatives  of  the  Union,  and  to 
the  relation  which  its  population,  aug- 
mented in  the  course  of  ten  years,  bore 
to  the  augmented  population  of  the 
Union  in  the  same  space  of  time.    The 


4 


DEMOCRACY   IN  AMERICA 


407 


1  Of  all 

years. 

opula- 

■>ace  of 


same  period  the  State  of  New  York  progressed  in  the  contrary 
direction:  in  1790  it  had  ten  representatives  in  Congress;  in 
1813,  twenty-seven;  in  1823,  thirty-four;  and  in  1833,  forty. 
The  State  of  Ohio  had  only  one  representative  in  1803,  and  in 
i(833  it  had  already  nineteen. 

It  is  difficult  to  imagine  a  durable  union  of  a  people  which  is 
rich  and  strong  with  one  which  is  poor  and  weak,  even  if  it 
were  proved  that  the  strength  and  wealth  of  the  one  are  not 
the  causes  of  the  weakness  and  poverty  of  the  other.  But  union 
is  still  more  difficult  to  maintain  at  a  time  at  which  one  party  is 
losing  strength,  and  the  other  is  gaining  it.  This  rapid  and  dis- 
proportionate increase  of  certain  States  threatens  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  others.  New  York  might  perhaps  succeed, 
with  its  2,000,000  of  inhabitants  and  its  forty  representatives, 
in  dictating  to  the  other  States  in  Congress.  But  even  if  the 
more  powerful  States  make  no  attempt  to  bear  down  the  lesser 
ones,  the  danger  still  exists ;  for  there  is  almost  as  much  in  the 
possibility  of  the  act  as  in  the  act  itself.  The  weak  generally 
mistrust  the  justice  and  the  reason  of  the  strong.  The  States 
which  increase  less  rapidly  than  the  others  look  upon  those 
which  are  more  favored  by  fortune  with  envy  and  suspicion. 
Hence  arise  the  deep-seated  uneasiness  and  ill-defined  agita- 
tion which  are  observable  in  the  South,  and  which  form  so  strik- 
ing a  contrast  to  the  confidence  and  prosperity  which  are  com- 
mon to  other  parts  of  the  Union.  I  am  inclined  to  think  that  the 
hostile  measures  taken  by  the  Southern  provinces  upon  a  re- 
cent occasion  are  attributable  to  no  other  cause.  The  inhab- 
itants of  the  Southern  States  are,  of  all  the  Americans,  those 
who  are  most  interested  in  the  maintenance  of  the  Union  ;  they 
would  assuredly  suffer  most  from  jjeing  left  to  themselves ;  and 
yet  they  are  the  only  citizens  who  threaten  to  break  the  tie  of 
confederation.  But  it  is  easy  to  perceive  that  the  South,  which 
has  given  four  Presidents,  Washington,  Jefferson,  Madison, 
and  Monroe,  to  the  Union,  which  perceives  that  it  is  losing  its 


new  number  ol  Virginian  representa- 
tives will  then  be  to  the  old  number,  on 
the  one  hand,  as  the  new  number  of  all 
the  representatives  is  to  the  old  num- 
ber; and,  on  the  other  hand,  as  the  aug- 
mentation of  the  population  of  Virsinia 
is  to  that  of  the  whole  population  of  the 
country.  Thus,  if  the  increase  of  the 
population  of  the  lesser  country  be  to 
that  of  the  Rreater  in  an  exact  inverse 
ratio  of  the  proportion  between  the  new 
and  the  old  numbers  of  all  the  repre- 


sentatives, the  number  of  the  represen- 
tatives of  Virginia  will  remain  station- 
ary ;  and  if  the  increase  of  the  Virginian 
population  be  to  that  of  the  whole 
Union  in  a  feebler  ratio  than  the  new 
number  of  the  representatives  of  the 
Union  to  the  old  number,  the  number 
nf  the  representatives  of  Virginia  must 
decrease.  [Thus,  to  the  s6th  Congress 
in  1899,  Virginia  and  West  Virginia  send 
only  fourteen  representatives.] 


w 


n 

I, 


m 


4od 


t)E  TOCQUEVILLE 


federal  influence,  and  that  the  number  of  its  representatives  in 
Congress  is  diminishing  from  year  to  year,  whilst  those  of  the 
Northern  and  Western  States  are  increasing ;  the  South,  which 
is  peopled  with  ardent  and  irascible  beings,  is  becoming  more 
and  more  irritated  and  alarmed.  The  citizens  reflect  upon  their 
present  position  and  remember  their  past  influence,  with  the 
melancholy  uneasiness  of  men  who  suspect  oppression :  if  they 
discover  a  law  of  the  Union  which  is  not  unequivocally  favor- 
able to  their  interests,  they  protest  against  it  as  an  abuse  of 
force;  and  if  their  ardent  remonstrances  are  not  listened  to, 
they  threaten  to  quit  an  association  which  loads  them  with  bur- 
dens whilst  it  deprives  them  of  their  due  profits.  "  The  tariff," 
said  the  inhabitants  of  Carolina  in  1832,  "  enriches  the  North, 
and  ruins  the  South ;  for  if  this  were  not  the  case,  to  what  can 
we  attribute  the  continually  increasing  power  and  wealth  of  the 
North,  with  its  inclement  skies  and  arid  soil ;  whilst  the  South, 
which  may  be  styled  the  garden  of  America,  is  rapidly  declin- 
ing? "g 

If  the  changes  which  I  have  described  were  gradual,  so  that 
each  generation  at  least  might  have  time  to  disappear  with  the 
order  of  things  under  which  it  had  lived,  the  danger  would  be 
less ;  but  the  progress  of  society  in  America  is  precipitate,  and 
almost  revolutionary.  The  same  citizen  may  have  lived  to  see 
his  State  take  the  lead  in  the  Union,  and  afterwards  become 
powerless  in  the  federal  assemblies;  and  an  Anglo-American 
republic  has  been  known  to  grow  as  rapidly  as  a  man  passing 
from  birth  and  infancy  to  maturii  in  the  course  of  thirty  years. 
It  must  not  be  imagined,  however,  that  the  States  which  lose 
their  preponderance,  also  lose  their  population  or  their  riches : 
no  stop  is  put  to  their  prosperity,  and  they  even  go  on  to  in- 
crease more  rapidly  than  any  kingdom  in  Europe.*"  But  they 
believe  themselves  to  be  impoverished  because  their  wealth 
does  not  augment  as  rapidly  as  that  of  their  neighbors ;  any 
they  think  that  their  power  is  lost,  because  they  suddenly  com-j 


g  See  the  report  of  its  committee  to 
the  Convention  which  ijroclaimed  the 
nullification  of  the  tariff  in  South  Caro- 
lina. 

r  The  population  of  a  country  assur- 
edly constitutes  the  first  element  of  its 
wealth.  In  the  ten  years  (1820-1850) 
durini;  which  Virpinia  lost  two  of  its 
representatives  in  Congress,  its  popula- 
tion increased  in  the  proportion  of  13.7 
per  cent.;  that  of  Carolina  in  the  pro- 


portion of  fifteen  per  cent. ;  and  that  of 
Georgia,  15.5  per  cent.  (See  the  "  Amer- 
ican Almanac,"  1832,  p.  162.)  But  the 
population  of  Russia,  which  increases 
more  rapidly  than  that  of  any  other 
European  country,  only  augments  in 
ten  years  at  the  rate  of  9.5  per  cent.;  in 
France,  at  the  rate  of  seven  per  cent. ; 
and  in  Europe  in  general,  at  the  rate  of 
4.7  per  cent.  (See  "  Malte  Brun,"  vol. 
vi.  p.  9S.) 


■fv 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


409 


:      .' 


into  collision  with  a  power  greater  than  their  own :  s  thus  they 
are  more  hurt  in  their  feelings  and  their  passions  than  in  their 
interests.  But  this  is  amply  sufficient  to  endanger  the  main- 
tenance of  the  Union.  If  kings  and  peoples  had  only  had  their 
true  interests  in  view  ever  since  the  beginning  of  the  world, 
the  name  of  war  would  scarcely  be  known  among  mankind. 

Thus  the  prosperity  of  the  United  States  is  the  source  of  the 
most  serious  dangers  that  threaten  them,  since  it  tends  to  create 
in  some  of  the  confederate  States  that  over-excitement  which 
accompanies  a  rapid  increase  of  fortune;  and  to  awaken  in 
others  those  feelings  of  envy,  mistrust,  and  regret  which  usually 
attend  upon  the  loss  of  it.  The  Americans  contemplate  this  ex- 
traordinary and  hasty  progress  with  exultation ;  but  they  would 
be  wiser  to  consider  it  with  sorrow  and  alarm.  The  Americans 
of  the  United  States  must  inevitably  become  one  of  the  greatest 
nations  in  the  world ;  their  ofifset  will  cover  almost  the  whole 
of  North  America;  the  continent  which  they  inhabit  is  their 
dominion,  and  it  cannot  escape  them.  What  urges  them  to 
take  possession  of  it  so  soon?  Riches,  power,  and  renown 
cannot  fail  to  be  theirs  at  some  future  time,  but  they  rush  upon 
their  fortune  as  if  but  a  moment  remained  for  them  to  make 
it  their  own. 

I  think  that  I  have  demonstrated  that  the  existence  of  the 
present  confederation  depends  entirely  on  the  continued  assent 
of  all  the  confederates;  and,  starting  from  this  principle,  I 
have  inquired  into  the  causes  which  may  induce  the  several 
States  to  separate  from  the  others.  The  Union  may,  however, 
perish  in  two  different  ways:  one  of  the  confederate  States 
may  choose  to  retire  from  the  compact,  and  so  forcibly  to  sever 
the  federal  tie ;  and  it  is  to  this  supposition  that  most  of  the 
remarks  that  I  have  made  apply :  or  the  authority  of  the  Fed- 
eral Government  may  be  progressively  entrenched  on  by  the 
simultaneous  tendency  of  the  united  republics  to  resume  their 
independence.  The  central  power,  successively  stripped  of  all 
its  prerogatives,  and  reduced  to  impotence  by  tacit  consent, 
would  become  incompetent  to  fulfil  its  purpose ;  and  the  second 
Union  would  perish,  like  the  first,  by  a  sort  of  senile  inaptitude. 
The  gradual  weakening  of  the  federal  tie,  which  may  finally  lead 


//    i 


\i    % 


'■I    ! 


.    / 


S  It  must  be  admitted,  however,  ttiat 
the  depreciation  which  has  taken  place 
in  the  value  of  tobacco,  durinis:  the  last 
fifty  years,  has  notably  diminished  the 


opulence  of  the  Southern  planters:  but 
this  circumstance  is  as  independent  of 
the  will  of  their  Northern  brethren  as 
it  is  of  their  own. 


*  !■ 


:  H 


4IO 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


ill     :«i 


Sii 


to  the  dissolution  of  the  Union,  is  a  distinct  circumstance,  that 
may  produce  a  variety  of  minor  consequences  before  it  operates 
so  violent  a  change.  The  confederation  might  still  subsist,  al- 
though its  Government  were  reduced  to  such  a  degree  of  inani- 
tion as  to  paralyze  the  nation,  to  cause  internal  anarchy,  and  to 
check  the  general  prosperity  of  the  country. 

After  having  investigated  the  causes  which  may  induce  the 
Anglo-Americans  to  disunite,  it  is  important  to  inquire  whether, 
if  the  Union  continues  to  subsist,  their  Government  will  extend 
or  contract  its  sphere  of  action,  and  whether  it  will  become 
more  energetic  or  more  weak. 

The  Americans  are  evidently  disposed  to  look  upon  their 
future  condition  with  alarm.  They  perceive  that  in  most  of  the 
nations  of  the  world  the  exercise  of  the  rights  of  sovereignty 
tends  to  fall  under  the  control  of  a  few  individuals,  and  they 
are  dismayed  by  the  idea  that  such  will  also  be  the  case  in  their 
own  country.  Even  the  statesmen  feel,  or  affect  to  feel,  these 
fears ;  for,  in  America,  centralization  is  by  no  means  popular, 
and  there  is  no  surer  means  of  courting  the  majority  than  by 
inveighing  against  the  encroachments  of  the  central  power. 
The  Americans  do  not  perceive  that  the  countries  in  which  this 
alarming  tendency  to  centralization  exists  are  inhabited  by  a 
single  people ;  whilst  the  fact  of  the  Union  being  composed  of 
different  confederate  communities  is  sufficient  to  baffie  all  the 
inferences  which  might  be  drawn  from  analogous  circum- 
stances. I  confess  that  I  am  inclined  to  consider  the  fears  of  a 
great  number  of  Americans  as  purely  imaginary ;  and  far  from 
participating  in  their  dread  of  the  consolidation  of  power  in  the 
hands  of  the  Union,  I  think  that  the  Federal  Governmei  is 
visibly  losing  strength. 

To  prove  this  assertion  I  shall  not  have  recourse  to  any  re- 
mote occurrences,  but  to  circumstances  which  I  have  myself 
witnessed,  and  which  belong  to  our  own  time. 

An  attentive  examination  of  what  is  going  on  in  the  United 
States  will  easily  convince  us  that  two  opposite  tendencies  ex- 
ist in  that  country,  like  two  distinct  currents  flowing  in  contrary 
directions  in  the  same  channel.  The  Union  has  now  existed  for 
forty-five  years,  and  in  the  course  of  that  time  a  vast  number 
of  provincial  prejudices,  which  were  at  first  hostile  to  its  power, 
have  died  away.  The  patriotic  feeling  which  attached  each  of 
the  Americans  to  his  own  native  State  is  become  less  exclusive ; 


t  I 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


4*1 


and  the  different  parts  of  the  Union  have  become  more  inti- 
mately connected  the  better  they  have  become  acquainted  with 
each  other.  The  post,*  that  great  instrument  of  intellectual  in- 
tercourse, now  reaches  into  the  backwoods;  and  steat.iboats 
have  established  daily  means  of  communication  between  the 
different  points  of  the  coast.  An  inland  navigation  of  unex- 
ampled rapidity  conveys  commodities  up  and  down  the  rivers 
of  the  country."  And  to  these  facilities  of  nature  and  art  may  be 
added  those  restless  cravings,  that  busy-mindedness,  and  love 
of  pelf,  which  are  constantly  urging  the  American  i-ito  active 
life,  and  bringing  him  into  contact  with  his  fellow-citizens.  He 
crosses  the  country  in  every  direction ;  he  visits  all  the  various 
populations  of  the  land ;  and  there  is  not  a  province  in  France 
in  which  the  natives  are  so  well  known  to  each  other  as  the 
13,000,000  of  men  who  cover  the  territory  of  the  United  States. 

But  whilst  the  Americans  intermingle,  they  grow  in  resem- 
blance of  each  other ;  the  differences  resulting  from  their  cli- 
mate, their  origin,  and  their  institutions,  diminish;  and  they 
all  draw  nearer  and  nearer  to  the  common  type.  Every  year, 
thousands  of  men  leave  the  North  to  settle  in  different  parts  of 
the  Union :  they  bring  with  them  their  faith,  their  opinions,  and 
their  manners ;  and  as  they  are  more  enlightened  than  the  men 
amongst  whom  they  are  about  to  dwell,  they  soon  rise  to  the 
head  of  affairs,  and  they  adapt  society  to  their  own  advantage. 
This  continual  emigration  of  the  North  to  the  South  is  pecu- 
liarly favorable  to  the  fusion  of  all  the  different  provincial  char- 
acters into  one  national  character.  The  civilization  of  the 
North  appears  to  be  the  common  standard,  to  which  the  whole 
nation  will  one  day  be  assimilated. 

The  commercial  ties  which  unite  the  confederate  States  are 
strengthened  by  the  increasing  manufactures  of  the  Americans ; 
and  the  union  which  began  to  exist  in  their  opinions,  gradually 
forms  a  part  of  their  habits :  the  course  of  time  has  swept  away 
the  bugbear  thoughts  which  haunted  the  imaginations  of  the 
citizens  in  1789.    The  federal  power  is  not  become  oppressive; 


t  In  1832,  the  district  of  Michigan, 
which  only  contains  31,639  inhabitants, 
and  is  still  an  almost  unexplored  wilder- 
ness, possessed  940  miles  of  mail-roads. 
The  territory  of  Arkansas,  which  is  still 
more  uncultivated,  was  already  inter- 
sected by  1,938  miles  of  mail-roads.  (See 
the  report  of  the  General  Post  Office, 
November  30,  1833.)    1'he    postage    of 


newspapers  alone  in  the  whole  Union 
amounted  to  $254,796. 

M  In  the  course  of  ten  years,  from 
1821  to  1831,  271  steamboats  have  been 
launched  upon  the  rivers  which  water 
the  valley  of  the  Mississippi  alone.  In 
1829  259  steamboats  existed  in  the 
United  States.  (See  Legislative  Docu- 
ments, No.  140,  p.  374.) 


I    ! 


1/1  j: 


j 

u 
i 

;.  il 


u: 


(' 


';    Si 


4ia 


DE  TOCQUr.VILLE 


i^ 


4 
i; 


it  has  not  destroyed  the  independence  of  the  States ;  it  has  not 
subjected  the  confederates  to  monarchical  institutions ;  and  the 
Union  has  not  rendered  the  lesser  States  dependent  upon  the 
larger  ones ;  but  the  confederation  has  continued  to  increase  in 
population,  in  wealth,  and  in  power.  I  am  therefore  convinced 
that  the  natural  obstacles  to  the  continuance  of  the  American 
Union  are  not  so  powerful  at  the  present  time  as  they  were  in 
1789;  and  that  the  enemies  of  the  Union  are  not  so  numerous. 

Nevertheless,  a  careful  examination  of  the  history  of  the 
United  States  for  the  last  forty-five  years  will  readily  convince 
us  that  the  federal  power  is  declining ;  nor  is  it  difficult  to  ex- 
plain the  causes  of  this  phenomenon.^'  When  the  Constitution 
of  1789  was  promulgated,  the  nation  was  a  prey  to  anarchy; 
the  Union,  which  succeeded  this  confusion,  excited  much  dread 
and  much  animosity;  but  it  was  warmly  supported  because  it 
satisfied  an  imperious  want.  Thus,  although  it  was  more  at- 
tacked than  it  is  now,  the  federal  power  soon  reached  the  maxi- 
mum of  its  authority,  as  is  usually  the  case  with  a  government 
which  triumphs  after  having  braced  its  strength  by  the  strug- 
gle. At  that  time  the  interpretation  of  the  Constitution  seemed 
to  extend,  rather  than  to  repress,  the  federal  sovereignty ;  and 
the  Union  offered,  in  several  respects,  the  appearance  of  a 
single  and  undivided  people,  directed  in  its  foreign  and  internal 
policy  by  a  single  Government.  But  to  attain  this  point  the 
people  had  risen,  to  a  certain  extent,  above  itself. 

The  Constitution  had  not  destroyed  the  distinct  sovereignty 
of  the  States;  and  all  communities,  of  whatever  nature  they 
may  be,  are  impelled  by  a  secret  propensity  to  assert  their  in- 
dependence. This  propensity  is  still  more  decided  in  a  country 
like  America,  in  which  every  village  forms  a  sort  of  republic 
accustomed  to  conduct  its  own  affairs.  It  therefore  cost  the 
States  an  effort  to  submit  to  the  federal  supremacy;  and  all 
efforts,  however  successful  they  may  be,  necessarily  subside 
with  the  causes  in  which  they  originated. 

As  the  Federal  Government  consolidated  its  authority,  Amer- 
ica resumed  its  rank  amongst  the  nations,  peace  returned  to 
its  frontiers,  and  public  credit  was  restored;  confusion  was 
succeeded  by  a  fixed  state  of  things,  which  was  favorable  to 
the  full  and  free  exercise  of  industrious  enterprise.    It  was 


V  [Since    1861    the    movement    is    cer- 
tainly in  the  opposite  direction,  and  the 


federal  power  has  largely  increased,  and 
tends  to  further  increase.] 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


413 


this  very  prosperity  which  made  the  Americans  forget  the 
cause  to  which  it  was  attrihutaljle ;  and  when  once  the  danger 
was  passed,  the  energy  and  the  patriotism  which  had  enabled 
them  to  brave  it  (Hsappeared  from  amongst  them.  No  sooner 
were  they  deUvered  from  the  cares  which  oppressed  them, 
than  they  easily  returned  to  their  ordinary  habits,  and  gave 
themselves  up  witiiout  resistance  to  their  natural  inclinations. 
When  a  powerful  Government  nt»  longer  appeared  to  be  neces- 
sary, they  once  more  began  to  think  it  irksome.  The  Union 
encouraged  a  general  prosperity,  and  the  States  were  not  in- 
clined to  abantlon  the  Union;  but  they  desired  to  render  the 
action  of  the  power  which  represented  that  body  as  light  as 
possible.  The  general  princ.,)le  of  Union  was  adopted,  but  in 
every  minor  detail  there  was  an  actual  tendency  to  independ- 
ence. The  principle  of  confederation  was  every  day  more 
easily  admitted,  and  more  rarely  applied ;  so  that  the  Federal 
Government  brought  about  its  own  decline,  whilst  it  was 
creating  order  and  peace. 

As  soon  as  this  tendency  of  public  opinion  began  to  be 
manifested  externally,  the  leaders  of  parties,  who  live  by  the 
passions  of  the  people,  began  to  work  it  to  their  own  advantage. 
The  position  of  the  Federal  Government  then  became  exceed- 
ingly critical.  Its  enemies  were  in  possession  of  the  popular 
favor ;  and  they  obtained  the  right  of  conducting  its  policy  by 
pledging  themselves  to  lessen  its  influence.  From  that  time 
forwards  the  Government  of  the  Union  has  invariably  been 
obliged  to  recede,  as  often  as  it  has  attempted  to  enter  the  lists 
with  the  governments  of  the  States.  And  whenever  an  inter- 
pretation of  the  terms  of  the  Federal  Constitution  has  been 
called  for,  that  interpretation  has  most  frequently  been  op- 
posed to  the  Union,  and  favorable  to  the  States. 

The  Constitution  invested  the  Federal  Government  with  the 
right  of  providing  for  the  interests  of  the  nation;  and  it  had 
been  held  that  no  other  authority  was  so  fit  to  superintend  the 
"  internal  improvements  "  which  affected  the  prosperity  of  the 
whole  Union ;  such,  for  instance,  as  the  cutting  of  canals.  But 
the  States  were  alarmed  at  a  power,  distinct  from  their  own, 
which  could  thus  dispose  of  a  portion  of  their  territory;  and 
they  were  afraid  that  the  central  Government  would,  by  this 
means,  acquire  a  formidable  extent  of  patronage  within  their 
own  confines,  and  exercise  a  degree  of  influence  which  they  in- 


!  ', 


^m 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


li 


»  ;:' 


!i;.i. 


•♦ 


tended  to  reserve  exclusively  to  thtii  <;<hu  njjcnts.  The  Demo- 
cratic party,  which  has  constantly  beer  i);v'/jif':!  to  the  increase 
of  the  federal  authority,  then  accused  tli-  Congress  of  usurpa- 
tion, and  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  ambition.  The  central  Gov- 
ernment was  intimidated  by  the  opposition ;  and  it  soon  acknowl- 
edged its  error,  promising  exactly  to  confine  its  influence  for 
the  future  within  the  circle  which  was  prescribed  to  it. 

The  Constitution  confers  upon  the  Union  the  right  of  treat- 
ing with  foreign  nations,  'llie  Indian  tribes,  which  border 
upon  the  frontiers  of  the  United  States,  had  usually  been  re- 
garded in  this  light.  As  long  as  these  savages  consented  to 
retire  before  the  civilized  settlers,  the  federal  right  was  not 
contested :  but  as  soon  as  an  Indian  tribe  attempted  to  fix  its 
dwelling  upon  a  given  spot,  the  adjacent  States  claimed  pos- 
session of  the  lands  and  the  rights  of  sovereignty  over  the 
natives.  The  central  Government  soon  recognized  ooth  these 
claims ;  and  after  it  had  concluded  treaties  with  the  Indians  as 
independent  nations,  it  gave  them  up  as  subjects  to  the  legisla- 
tive tyranny  of  the  States.w 

Some  of  the  States  which  had  been  founded  upon  the  coast 
of  the  Atlantic,  extended  indefinitely  to  the  West,  into  wild 
regions  where  no  European  had  ever  penetrated.  The  States 
whose  confines  were  irrevocably  fixed,  looked  with  a  jealous 
eye  upon  the  unbounded  regions  which  the  future  would  en- 
able their  neighbors  to  explore.  The  latter  then  agreed,  with 
a  view  to  conciliate  the  others,  and  to  facilitate  the  act  of  union, 
to  lay  down  their  own  boundaries,  and  to  abandon  all  the 
territory  which  lay  beyond  those  limits  to  the  confederation  at 
large.J^  Thenceforward  the  Federal  Government  became  the 
owner  of  all  the  uncultivated  lands  which  lie  beyond  the 
borders  of  the  thirteen  States  first  confederated.  It  was  in- 
vested with  the  right  of  parcelling  and  selling  them,  and  the 
sums  derived  from  this  source  were  exclusively  reserved  to 
the  public  treasure  of  the  Union,  in  order  to  furnish  supplies 
for  purchasing  tracts  of  country  from  the  Indians,  for  opening 
roads  to  the  remote  settlements,  and  for  accelerating  the  in- 


V)  See  in  the  Legislative  Documents, 
already  quoted  in  speaking  of  the  Ind- 
ians, the  letter  of  the  President  of  the 
United  States  to  the  Cherokees,  his  cor- 
respondence on  this  subject  with  his 
agents,  and  bis  messages  to  Congress. 

,r  The   first   act   of   session   was   made 


by_  the  State  of  New  York  in  1780;  Vir- 

fi  n  i  a,  Massachusetts,  Connecticut, 
outh  and  North  Carolina,  followed  this 
example  at  different  times,  and  lastly, 
the  act  of  cession  of  Georgia  was  made 
as  recently  as  1802. 


DEMOCRACY   IN   AMERICA 


4»S 


crease  of  civilization  as  much  as  possible.  New  States  have, 
however,  been  formed  in  the  course  of  time,  in  the  midst  of 
those  wilds  which  were  formerly  ceded  by  the  inhabitants  of 
the  shores  of  the  Atlantic.  Congress  has  gone  on  to  sell,  for 
the  profit  of  the  nation  at  large,  the  uncultivated  lands  which 
those  new  States  contained.  But  the  latter  at  length  asserted 
that,  as  they  were  now  fully  constituted,  they  ought  to  enjoy 
the  exclusive  right  of  converting  the  produce  of  these  sales 
to  their  own  use.  As  their  remonstrances  became  more  and 
more  threatening,  Congress  thought  fit  to  deprive  the  Union 
of  a  portion  of  the  privileges  which  it  had  hitherto  enjoyed; 
and  at  the  end  of  1832  it  passed  a  law  by  which  the  greatest 
part  of  the  revenue  derived  from  the  sale  of  lands  was  made 
over  to  the  new  western  republics,  although  the  lands  them-* 
selves  were  not  ceded  to  them.y 

The  slightest  observation  in  the  United  States  enables  one 
to  appreciate  the  advantages  which  the  country  derives  from 
the  bank.  These  advantages  are  of  several  kinds,  but  one  of 
them  is  peculiarly  striking  to  the  stranger.  The  banknotes 
of  the  United  States  are  taken  upon  the  borders  of  the  desert 
for  the  same  value  as  at  Philadelphia,  where  the  bank  conducts 
its  operations.* 

The  Bank  of  the  United  States  is  nevertheless  the  object  of 
great  animosity.  Its  directors  have  proclaimed  their  hostility 
to  the  President :  and  they  are  accused,  not  without  some  show 
of  probability,  of  having  abused  their  influence  to  thwart  his 
election.  The  President  therefore  attacks  the  establishment 
which  they  represent  with  all  the  warmth  of  personal  enmity; 
and  he  is  encouraged  in  the  pursuit  of  his  revenge  by  the  con- 
viction that  he  is  supported  by  the  secret  propensities  of  the 
majority.  The  bank  may  be  regarded  as  the  great  monetary 
tie  of  the  Union,  just  as  Congress  is  the  great  legislative  tie; 
and  the  same  passions  which  tend  to  render  the  States  inde- 
pendent of  the  central  power,  contribute  to  the  overthrow  of 
the  bank. 

The  Bank  of  the  United  States  always  holds  a  great  num- 


\  I 


V  It  is  true  that  the  President  refused 
his  assent  to  this  law;  but  he  completely 
adopted  it  in  principle.  (See  Message 
of  December  8,  1833.)  ,,  .     . 

s  The  present  Bank  of  the  United 
States  was  established  in  1816,  with  a 
capital  of  $35,000,000;  its  charter  expires 
in  1836.    Last  year  Congress  passed  a 


law  to  renew  it,  but  the  President  put 
his  veto  upon  the  bill.  The  struggle  is 
still  going  on  with  great  violence  on 
either  side,  and  the  speedy  fall  of  the 
bank  may  easily  be  foreseen.  [It  was 
soon  afterwards  extinguished  by  Gen- 
eral Jackson.] 


4i6 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


M     • 


■  ii 


ber  of  the  notes  issued  by  the  provincial  banks,  which  it  can 
at  any  time  oblige  them  to  convert  into  cash.  It  has  itself 
nothing  to  fear  from  a  similar  demand,  as  the  extent  of  its  re- 
sources enabl':s  it  to  meet  all  claims.  But  the  existence  of  the 
provincial  banks  is  thus  threatened,  and  their  operations  are 
restricted,  since  they  are  only  able  to  issue  a  quantity  of  notes 
duly  proportioned  to  their  capital.  They  submit  with  im- 
patience to  this  salutary  control.  The  newspapers  which  they 
have  bought  over,  and  the  President,  whose  interest  renders 
him  their  instrument,  attack  the  bank  with  the  greatest  ve^ 
hemence.  They  rouse  the  local  passions  and  the  blind  demo- 
cratic instinct  of  the  country  to  aid  their  cause;  and  they  as- 
sert that  the  bank  directors  form  a  permanent  aristocratic 
body,  whose  influence  must  ultimately  be  felt  in  the  Govern- 
ment, and  must  affect  those  principles  of  equality  upon  which 
society  rests  in  America. 

The  contest  between  the  bank  and  its  opponents  is  only  an 
incident  in  the  great  struggle  which  is  going  on  in  America 
between  the  provinces  and  the  central  power;  between  the 
spirit  of  democratic  independence  and  the  spirit  of  gradation 
and  subordination.  I  do  not  mean  that  the  enemies  of  the 
bank  are  identically  the  same  individuals  who,  on  other  points, 
attack  the  Federal  Government;  but  I  assert  that  the  attacks 
directed  against  the  bank  of  the  United  States  originate  in  the 
same  propensities  which  militate  against  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment; and  that  the  very  numerous  opponents  of  the  former 
afford  a  deplorable  symptom  of  the  decreasing  support  of  the 
latter. 

The  Union  has  never  displayed  so  much  weakness  as  in  the 
celebrated  question  of  the  tariff.o  The  wars  of  the  French  Rev- 
olution and  of  1812  had  created  manufacturing  establishments 
in  the  North  of  the  Union,  by  cutting  off  all  free  communi- 
cation between  America  and  Europe.  When  peace  was  con- 
cluded, and  the  channel  of  intercourse  reopened  by  which  the 
produce  of  Europe  was  transmitted  to  the  New  World,  the 
Americans  thought  fit  to  establish  a  system  of  import  duties, 
for  the  twofold  purpose  of  protecting  their  incipient  manu- 
factures and  of  paying  off  the  amount  of  the  debt  contracted 
during  the  war.     The  Southern  States,  which  have  no  manu- 


a  See    principally    for    the    details    of  this  aflfair,  the  Legislative  Documents, 
22A  Congress,  2d  Session,  No.  30. 


ich  it  can 
has  itself 
of  its  re- 
nce  of  the 
ations  are 
y  of  notes 
with  im- 
ifhich  they 
st  renders 
eatest  ve* 
ind  demo- 
d  they  as- 
ristocratic 
e  Govern- 
pon  which 

is  only  an 
1  America 
tween  the 
gradation 
lies  of  the 
her  points, 
:he  attacks 
nate  in  the 
al  Govern- 
:he  former 
3ort  of  the 

s  as  in  the 
rench  Rev- 
blishments 

communi- 
;  was  con- 

which  the 
A^orld,  the 
fort  duties, 
ent  manu- 
contracted 

no  manu- 

e  Documents, 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


417 


factures  to  encourage,  and  which  are  exclusively  agricultural, 
soon  complained  of  this  measure.  Such  were  the  simple  facts, 
and  I  do  not  pretend  to  examine  in  this  place  whether  their 
complaints  were  well  founded  or  unjust. 

As  early  as  the  year  1820,  South  Carolina  declared,  in  a 
petition  to  Congress,  that  the  tariff  was  "  unconstitutional,  op- 
pressive, and  unjust."  And  the  States  of  Georgia,  Virginia, 
North  Carolina,  Alabama,  and  Mississippi  subsequently  re- 
monstrated against  it  with  more  or  less  vigor.  But  Congress, 
far  from  lending  an  ear  to  these  complaints,  raised  the  scale 
of  tariff  duties  in  the  years  1824  and  1828,  and  recognized 
anew  the  principle  on  which  it  was  founded.  A  doctrine  was 
then  proclaimed,  or  rather  revived,  in  the  South,  which  took 
the  name  of  Nullification. 

I  have  shown  in  the  proper  place  that  the  object  of  the  Federal 
Constitution  was  not  to  form  a  league,  but  to  create  a  national 
government.  The  Americans  of  the  United  States  form  a 
sole  and  undivided  people,  in  all  the  cases  which  are  specified 
by  that  Constitution;  and  upon  these  points  the  will  of  the 
nation  is  expressed,  as  it  is  in  all  constitutional  nations,  by  the 
voice  of  the  majority.  When  the  majority  has  pronounced  its 
decision,  it  is  the  duty  of  the  minority  to  submit.  Such  is  the 
sound  legal  doctrine,  and  the  only  one  which  agrees  with  the 
text  of  the  Constitution,  and  the  known  intention  of  those  who 
framed  it. 

The  partisans  of  Nullification  in  the  South  maintain,  on  the 
contrary,  that  the  intention  of  the  Americans  in  uniting  was 
not  to  reduce  themselves  to  the  condition  of  one  and  the  same 
people ;  that  they  meant  to  constitute  a  league  of  independent 
States;  and  that  each  State,  consequently  retains  its  entire 
sovereignty,  if  not  de  facto,  at  least  de  jure;  and  has  the  right 
of  putting  its  own  construction  upon  the  laws  of  Congress,  and 
of  suspending  their  execution  within  the  limits  of  its  own  ter- 
ritory, if  they  are  held  10  be  unconstitutional  and  unjust. 

The  entire  doctrine  of  Nullification  is  comprised  in  a  sen- 
tence uttered  by  Vice-President  Calhoun,  the  head  of  that 
party  in  the  South,  before  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  in 
the  year  1833 :  "  The  Constitution  is  a  compact  to  which  the 
States  were  parties  in  their  sovereign  capacity ;  now,  whenever 
a  compact  is  entered  into  by  parties  which  acknowledge  no 
tribunal  above  their  authority  to  decide  in  the  last  resort,  each 
Vol.  I.— 37 


>    A 


'» 


1^ 


<■  ml\ 


\i  i- 


I 


J 11; 


4i8 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


of  them  has  a  right  to  judge  for  itself  in  relation  to  the  nature, 
extent,  and  obligations  of  the  instrument."  It  is  evident  that 
a  similar  doctrine  destroys  the  very  basis  of  the  Federal  Con- 
stitution, and  brings  back  all  the  evils  of  the  old  confederation, 
fr(»n  which  the  Americans  were  supposed  to  have  had  a  safe 
deliverance. 

When  South  Carolina  perceived  that  Congress  turned  a  deaf 
ear  to  its  remonstrances,  it  threatened  to  apply  the  doctrine 
of  nullification  to  the  federal  tariff  bill.  Congress  persist'"d 
in  its  former  system;  and  at  length  the  storm  broke  out.  In 
the  course  of  1832  the  citizens  of  South  Carolina.^  named  a 
national  Convention,  to  consult  upon  the  extraordinary  meas- 
ures which  they  were  called  upon  to  take;  and  on  November 
24th  of  the  same  year  this  Convention  promulgated  a  law,  un- 
der the  form  of  a  decree,  which  annulled  the  federal  law  of 
the  tariff,  forbade  the  levy  of  the  imposts  which  that  law  com- 
mands, and  refused  to  recognize  the  appeal  which  might  be 
made  to  the  federal  courts  of  law.c  This  decree  was  only  to  be 
put  in  execution  in  the  ensuing  month  of  February,  and  it  was 
intimated,  that  if  Congress  riodified  the  tariff  before  that 
period.  South  Carolina  might  De  induced  to  proceed  no  further 
with  her  menaces;  and  a  vague  desire  was  afterwards  ex- 
pressed of  submitting  the  question  to  an  extraordinary  as- 
sembly of  all  the  confederate  States. 

In  the  meantime  South  Carolina  armed  her  militia,  and  pre- 
pared for  war.  But  Congress,  which  had  slighted  its  sup- 
pliant subjects,  listened  to  their  complaints  as  soon  as  they  were 
found  to  have  taken  up  arms.d    A  law  was  passed,  by  which 


(That  is  to  say,  the  majority  of  the 
people;  for  the  opposite  party,  called 
the  Union  party,  always  formed  a  very 
strong  and  active  mmority.  Carolina 
may  contain  about  ^7,000  electors:  30,000 
were  in  favor  of  nulliiication,  and  17,000 
opposed  to  it. 

c  Thia  decree  was  preceded  by  a  re- 
port of  the  committee  by  which  it  was 
framed,  containing  the  explanation  of 
the  motives  and  object  of  the  law.  The 
following  passage  occurs  in  it,  p.  3^:— 
"  When  the  rights  reserved  by  the  Con- 
stitution to  the  different  States  are  de- 
liberately violated,  it  is  the  duty  and  the 
right  of  those  States  to  interfere,  in 
order  to  check  the  progress  of  the  evil; 
to  resist  usurpation,  and  to  maintain, 
within  their  respective  limits,  those 
powers  and  privileges  which  belong  to 
them  as  independent  sovereign  States. 
If  they  were  destitute  of  this  right,  they 
would  not  be  sovereign.    South  Caro- 


lina declares  that  she  acknowledges  no 
tribunal  upon  earth  above  her  authority. 
She  has  indeed  entered  into  a  solemn 
compact  of  union  with  the  other  States; 
but  she  demands,  and  will  exercise,  the 
right  of  putting  her  own  construction 
upon  it;  and  when  this  compact  is  vio> 
lated  by  her  sister  States,  and  by  the 
Government  which  they  have  created, 
she  is  determined  to  avail  herself  of  the 
unquestionable  right  of  judging  what 
is  the  extent  of  the  infraction,  and  what 
are  the  measures  best  fitted  to  obtain 
justice." 

d  Congress  was  finally  decided  to  take 
this  step  by  the  conduct  of  the  powerful 
State  of  Virginra,  whose  legislature 
offered  to  serve  as  mediator  oetween 
the  Union  and  South  Carolina.  Hither- 
to the  latter  State  had  appeared  to  be 
entirely  abandoned,  even  by  the  States 
which  had  joined  in  her  remonstrances. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


419 


ex- 


the  tariff  duties  were  to  be  progressively  reduced  for  ten  years, 
until  they  were  brought  so  low  as  not  to  exceed  the  amount 
of  supplies  necessary  to  the  Government.*?  Thus  Congress 
completely  abandoned  the  principle  of  the  tariff;  and  substi- 
tuted a  mere  fiscal  impost  to  a  system  of  protective  duties/ 
The  Government  of  the  Union,  in  order  to  conceal  its  defeat, 
had  recourse  to  an  expedient  which  is  very  much  in  vogue  with 
feeble  governments.  It  yielded  the  point  de  facto,  but  it  re- 
mained inflexible  upon  the  principles  in  question;  and  whilst 
Congress  was  altering  the  tariff  law,  it  passed  another  bill,  by 
which  the  President  was  invested  with  extraordinary  powers, 
enabling  him  to  overcome  by  force  a  resistance  which  was 
then  no  longer  to  be  apprehended. 

But  South  Carolina  did  not  consent  to  leave  the  Union  in 
the  enjoyment  of  these  scanty  trophies  of  success:  the  same 
national  Convention  which  had  annulled  the  tariff  bill,  met 
again,  and  accepted  the  proffered  concession ;  but  at  the  same 
time  it  declared  its  unabated  perseverance  in  the  doctrine  of 
Nullification:  and  to  prove  what  it  said,  it  annulled  the  law 
investing  the  President  with  extraordinary  powers,  although 
it  was  very  certain  tha';  the  clauses  of  that  law  would  never  be 
carried  inti..  effect. 

Almost  all  the  controversies  of  which  I  have  been  speaking 
have  taken  place  under  the  Presidency  of  General  Jackson; 
and  it  cannot  be  denied  that  in  the  question  of  the  tariff  he 
has  supported  the  claims  of  the  Union  with  vigor  and  with  skill. 
I  am,  however,  of  opinion  that  the  conduct  of  the  individual 
who  now  represents  the  Fe'lei  n,l  Government  may  be  reckoned 
as  one  of  the  dangers  which  ihreaten  its  continuance. 

Some  persons  in  Europe  h"-, e  fon\ipd  an  opinion  of  the  pos- 
sible influence  of  General  Javksori  upoii  the  affairs  of  his  coun- 
try, which  appears  highly  extravaga  1  •.  >  those  who  have  seen 
more  of  the  subject.  V/(.  have  been  ^old  that  General  Jackson 
has  won  sundry  battles,  tiia*  he  is  an  jiiergetic  man,  prone  by 
nature  and  by  habit  to  the  \xtc  'i  force,  covetous  of  power,  and 
a  despot  by  taste.  All  this  may  perhaps  be  true;  but  the  in- 
ferences which  have  been  drawn  from  these  truths  are  exceed- 
ingly erroneous.  It  has  been  imagined  that  General  Jackson 
■':  bent  on  establishing  a  dictatorship  in  America,  on  introduc- 


e  This  i.-"v  was  passed  on   March  2, 
1833. 
/  This   bill   was   brought   in    by    Mr. 


y,  an'j  it  passed  in  four  days  through 
:h   Houses  of   Congress  by  an   im- 


Cla; 
bot 
mense  maj.'^'ity. 


I     Ul 


si 


n 


420 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


M^ 


ing  a  military  spirit,  and  on  giving  a  degree  of  influence  to  the 
central  authority  which  cannot  but  be  dangerous  to  provincial 
liberties.  But  in  America  the  time  for  similar  undertakings, 
and  the  age  for  men  of  this  kind,  is  not  yet  come:  if  General 
Jackson  had  entertained  a  hope  of  exercising  his  authority  in 
this  manner,  he  would  infallibly  have  forfeited  his  political  sta- 
tion, and  compromised  his  life;  accordingly  he  has  not  been 
so  imprudent  as  to  make  any  such  attempt. 

Far  from  wishing  to  extend  the  federal  power,  the  Presi- 
dent belongs  to  the  party  which  is  desirous  of  limitinjr  that 
power  to  the  bare  and  precise  letter  of  the  Constitution,  and 
which  never  puts  a  construction  upon  that  act  favorable  to  the 
Government  of  the  Union;  far  from  standing  forth  as  the 
champion  of  centralization.  General  Jackson  is  the  agent  of  all 
the  jealousies  of  the  States;  and  he  was  placed  in  the  lofty 
station  he  occupies  by  the  passions  of  the  people  which  are  most 
opposed  to  the  central  Government.  It  is  by  perpetually  flat- 
tering these  passions  that  he  maintains  his  station  and  his 
popularity.  General  Jackson  is  the  slave  of  the  majority:  he 
yields  to  its  wishes,  its  propensities,  and  its  demands;  say 
rather,  that  he  anticipates  and  forestalls  them. 

Whenever  the  governments  of  the  States  come  into  collision 
with  that  of  the  Union,  the  President  is  generally  the  first  to 
question  his  own  rights :  he  almost  always  outstrips  the  legis- 
lature; and  when  the  extent  of  the  federal  power  is  contro- 
verted, he  takes  part,  as  it  were,  against  himself;  he  conceals 
his  official  interests,  and  extinguishes  his  own  natural  inclina- 
tions. Not  indeed  that  he  is  naturally  weak  or  hostile  to  the 
Union ;  for  when  the  majority  decided  against  the  claims  of  the 
partisans  oi  nullification,  he  put  himself  at  its  head,  asserted  the 
doctrines  which  the  nation  held  distinctly  and  energetically, 
and  was  the  first  to  recommend  forcible  measures ;  but  General 
Jackson  appears  to  me,  if  I  may  use  the  American  expressions, 
to  be  a  Federalist  by  taste,  and  a  Republican  by  calculation. 

General  Jackson  stoops  to  gain  the  favor  of  the  majority, 
but  when  he  feels  that  his  popularity  is  secure,  he  overthrows 
all  obstacles  in  the  pursuit  of  the  objects  which  the  commu- 
nity approves,  or  of  those  which  it  does  not  look  upon  with  a 
jealous  eye.  He  is  supported  by  a  power  with  which  his  pre- 
decessors were  unacquainted ;  and  he  tramples  on  his  per- 
sonal enemies  whenever  they  cross  his  path  with  a  facility 


i 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


491 


f'  >- 


which  no  former  President  ever  enjoyed ;  he  takes  upon  himself 
the  responsibility  of  measures  which  no  one  before  him  would 
have  ventured  to  attempt:  he  even  treats  the  national  repre- 
sentatives with  disdain  approaching  to  insult ;  he  puts  his  veto 
upon  the  laws  of  Congress,  and  frequently  neglects  to  reply 
to  that  powerful  body.  He  is  a  favorite  who  sometimes  treats 
his  master  roughly.  The  power  of  General  Jackson  perpetual- 
ly increases ;  but  that  of  the  President  declines ;  in  his  hands  the 
Federal  Government  is  strong,  but  it  will  pass  enfeebled  into 
the  hands  of  his  successor. 

I  am  strangely  mistaken  if  the  Federal  Government  of  the 
United  States  be  not  constantly  losing  strength,  retiring  grad- 
ually from  public  affairs,  and  narrowing  its  circle  of  action 
more  and  more.  It  is  naturally  feeble,  but  it  now  abandons 
even  its  pretensions  to  strength.  On  the  other  hand,  I  thought 
that  I  remarked  a  more  lively  sense  of  independence,  and  a 
more  decided  attachment  to  provincial  government  in  the 
States.  The  Union  is  to  subsist,  but  to  subsist  as  a  shadow ; 
it  is  to  be  strong  in  certain  cases,  and  weak  in  all  others;  in 
time  of  warfare,  it  is  to  be  able  to  concentrate  all  the  forces  of 
the  nation  and  all  the  resources  of  the  country  in  its  hands ;  and 
in  time  of  i)eace  its  existence  is  to  be  scarcely  perceptible:  a» 
if  this  alternate  debili'iy  and  vigor  were  natural  or  possible. 

I  do  not  foresee  anything  for  the  present  which  may  be  able 
to  check  this  general  impulse  of  public  opinion ;  the  causes  in 
which  it  originated  do  not  cease  to  operate  with  the  same  effect. 
The  change  will  therefore  go  on,  and  it  may  be  predicted 
that,  unless  some  extraordinary  event  occurs,  the  Government 
of  the  Union  will  grow  weaker  and  weaker  every  day. 

I  think,  however,  that  the  period  is  still  remote  at  which  the 
federal  power  will  be  entirely  extinguished  by  its  inability  to 
protect  itself  and  to  maintain  peace  in  the  country.  The  Union 
is  sanctioned  by  the  manners  and  desires  of  the  people ;  its  re- 
sults are  palpable,  its  benefits  visible.  When  it  is  perceived 
that  the  weakness  of  the  Federal  Government  compromises  the 
existence  of  the  Union,  I  do  not  doubt  that  a  reaction  will  take 
place  with  a  vievv  to  increase  its  strength. 

The  Government  of  the  United  States  is,  of  all  the  federal 
governments  which  have  hitherto  been  established,  the  one 
which  is  most  naturally  destined  to  act.  As  long  as  it  is  only 
indirectly  assailed  by  the  interpretation  of  its  laws,  and  as 


I' 


I 


I 


i 


i! 


.; 


/ 


422 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


long  as  its  substance  is  not  seriously  altered,  a  change  of  opin 
ion,  an  internal  crisis,  or  a  war,  may  restore  all  the  vigor  which 
it  requires.  The  point  which  I  have  been  most  anxious  to  put  in 
a  clear  light  is  simply  this :  Many  people,  especially  in  France, 
imagine  that  a  change  in  opinion  is  going  on  in  the  United 
States,  which  is  favorable  to  a  centralization  of  power  in  the 
hands  of  the  President  and  the  Congress.  I  hold  that  a  con- 
trary tendency  may  distinctly  be  observed.  So  far  is  the  Fed- 
eral Government  from  acquiring  strength,  and  from  threaten- 
ing the  sovereignty  of  the  States,  as  it  grows  older,  that  I  main- 
tain it  to  be  growing  weaker  and  weaker,  and  that  the  sov- 
ereignty of  the  Union  alone  is  in  danger.  Such  are  the  facts 
which  the  present  time  discloses.  The  future  conceals  the  final 
result  of  this  tendency,  and  the  events  which  may  check,  retard, 
or  accelerate  the  changes  I  have  described ;  but  I  do  not  affect 
to  be  able  to  remove  the  veil  'v iiich  hides  them  from  our  sight. 


M 


Of  the  Republican  Institutions  of  the  United  States, 
AND  What  Their  Chances  of  Duration  Are 

The  Union  is  accidental — The  Republican  institutions  have  more  pros- 
pect of  pern:  neiice — A  republic  for  the  present  the  natural  state  of 
the  Anglo-Americans — Reason  of  this — In  order  to  destroy  it,  all 
the  laws  niust  be  cha.iged  at  the  same  time,  and  a  great  alteration 
take  place  m  manners — Difficulties  experienced  by  the  Americans  in 
creating  an  aristocracy. 

The  dismemberment  of  the  Union,  by  the  introduction  of 
war  into  the  heart  of  those  States  which  are  now  confederate, 
with  standing  armies,  a  dictatorship,  and  a  heavy  taxation, 
might,  eventually,  compromise  the  fate  of  the  republican  in- 
stitutions. But  we  ought  not  to  confound  the  future  prospects 
of  the  republic  with  those  of  the  Union.  The  Union  is  an  ac- 
cident, which  will  only  last  as  long  as  circumstances  are  favor- 
able to  its  existence;  but  a  republican  form  of  government 
seems  to  me  to  be  the  natural  state  of  the  Americans ;  which 
nothing  but  the  continued  action  of  hostile  causes,  always  act- 
injT  in  the  same  direction,  could  change  into  a  monarchy.  The 
Unio  1  exiles  principally  in  the  law  which  formed  it;  one  revo- 
lut;Oii,  one  change  •"•••  mblic  opinion,  might  destroy  it  forever; 
bur  the  republic  has  a  much  deeper  foundation  to  rest  upon. 

What  is  understood  by  a  republican  government  in  the 
United  States  is  the  slow  and  quiet  action  of  society  upon  itself. 


lii^^?:. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


423 


It  is  a  regular  state  of  things  really  founded  upon  the  enlight- 
ened will  of  the  people.  It  is  a  conciliatory  government  under 
which  resolutions  are  allowed  time  to  ripen ;  and  in  which  they 
are  deliberately  discussed,  and  executed  with  mature  judgment. 
The  republicans  in  the  United  States  set  a  high  value  upon 
morality,  respect  religious  belief,  and  acknowledge  the  exist- 
ence of  rights.  They  profess  to  think  that  a  people  ought  to  be 
moral,  religious,  and  temperate,  in  proportion  as  it  is  free. 
What  is  called  the  republic  in  the  United  States,  is  the  tranquil 
rule  of  the  majority,  which,  after  having  had  time  to  examine 
itself,  and  to  give  proof  of  its  existence,  is  the  common  sou«  ce 
of  all  the  powers  of  the  State.  But  the  power  of  the  majority 
is  not  of  itself  unlimiied.  In  the  moral  world  humanity,  jus- 
tice, and  reason  enjoy  an  undisputed  supremacy ;  in  the  politi- 
cal world  vested  rights  are  treated  with  no  less  deference.  The 
majority  recognizes  these  two  barriers ;  and  if  it  now  and  then 
overstep  them,  it  is  because,  like  individuals,  it  has  passions, 
and,  like  them,  it  is  prone  to  do  what  is  wrong,  whilst  it  discerns 
what  is  right. 

But  the  demagogues  of  Europe  have  made  strange  dis- 
coveries. A  republic  is  not,  according  to  them,  the  rule  of 
the  majority,  as  has  hitherto  been  thought,  but  the  rule  of 
those  who  are  strenuous  partisans  of  the  majority.  It  is  not 
the  people  who  preponderates  in  this  kind  of  government, 
but  those  who  are  best  versed  in  the  good  qualities  of  the 
people.  A  happy  distinction,  which  allows  men  to  act  in 
the  name  of  nations  without  consulting  them,  and  to  claim 
their  gratitude  whilst  their  rights  are  spurned.  A  republican 
government,  moreover,  is  the  only  one  which  claims  the 
right  of  doing  whatever  it  chooses,  and  despising  what  men 
have  hitherto  respected,  from  the  highest  moral  obligations  to 
the  vulgar  rules  of  common-sense.  It  had  been  supposed,  until 
our  time,  that  despotism  was  odious,  under  whatever  form  it 
appeared.  But  it  is  a  discovery  of  modern  days  that  there  are 
such  things  as  legitimate  tyranny  and  holy  injustice,  provided 
they  are  exercised  in  the  name  of  the  people. 

The  ideas  which  the  AmenVans  have  adopted  respecting  the 
republican  form  of  government,  render  it  easy  for  them  to  live 
under  it,  and  insure  its  duration.  If,  in  their  country,  this  form 
be  often  practically  bad,  at  least  it  is  theoretically  good ;  and,  in 
the  end,  the  people  always  acts  in  conformity  to  it. 


M|i 


I 


'i 


■  hi 


I 


424 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


f '       '  L 

■l      fl    « 


It  was  impossible  at  the  foundation  of  the  States,  and  it 
would  still  be  difficult,  to  establish  a  central  administration  in 
America.  The  inhabitants  are  dispersed  over  too  great  a  space, 
and  separated  by  too  many  natural  obstacles,  for  one  man  to 
undertake  to  direct  the  details  of  their  existence.  America  is 
therefore  pre-eminently  the  country  of  provincial  and  municipal 
government.  To  this  cause,  which  was  plainly  felt  by  all  the 
Europeans  of  the  New  World,  the  Anglo-Americans  added 
several  others  peculiar  to  themselves. 

At  the  time  of  the  settlement  of  the  North  American  colonies, 
municipal  liberty  had  already  penetrated  into  the  laws  as  well 
as  the  manners  of  the  English ;  and  the  emigrants  adopted  it, 
not  only  as  a  necessary  thing,  but  as  a  benefit  which  they  knew 
how  to  appreciate.  We  have  already  seen  the  manner  in  which 
the  colonies  were  founded:  every  province,  and  almost  every 
district,  was  peopled  separately  by  men  who  were  strangers  to 
each  other,  or  who  associated  with  very  different  purposes. 
The  English  settlers  in  the  United  States,  therefore,  early  per- 
ceived that  they  were  divided  into  a  great  number  of  small  and 
distinct  communities  which  belonged  to  no  common  centre; 
and  that  it  was  needful  for  each  of  these  little  communities  to 
take  care  of  its  own  affairs,  since  there  did  not  appear  to  be  any 
central  authority  which  was  naturally  bound  and  easily  enabled 
to  provide  for  them.  Thus,  the  nature  of  the  country,  the  man- 
ner in  which  the  British  colonies  were  founded,  the  habits  of 
the  first  emigrants,  in  short  everything,  united  to  promote,  in 
an  extraordinary  degree,  municipal  and  provincial  liberties. 

In  the  United  States,  therefore,  the  mass  of  the  institutions 
of  the  country  is  essentially  republican ;  and  in  order  perma- 
nently to  destroy  the  laws  which  form  the  basis  of  the  republic, 
it  would  be  necessary  to  abolish  all  the  laws  at  once.  At  the 
present  day  it  would  be  even  more  difficult  for  a  party  to  succeed 
in  founding  a  monarchy  in  the  United  States  than  for  a  set  of 
men  to  proclaim  that  France  should  henceforward  be  a  republic. 
Royalty  would  not  find  a  system  of  legislation  prepared  for  it  be- 
forehand ;  and  a  monarchy  would  then  exist,  really  surrounded 
by  republican  institutions.  The  monarchical  principle  would 
likewise  have  great  difficulty  in  penetrating  into  the  manners  of 
the  Americans. 

In  the  United  States,  the  sovereignty  of  the  people  is  not  an 
isolated  doctrine  bearing  no  relation  to  the  prevailing  manners 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


425 


and  ideas  of  the  people :  it  may,  on  the  contrary,  be  regarded 
as  the  iast  link  of  a  chain  of  opinions  which  binds  the  whole 
Anglo-American  world.  That  Providence  has  given  to  every 
human  being  the  degree  of  reason  necessary  to  direct  himself 
in  the  affairs  which  interest  him  exclusively — such  is  the  grand 
maxim  upon  which  civil  and  political  society  rests  in  the  United 
States.  The  father  of  a  family  applies  it  to  his  children ;  the 
master  to  his  servants ;  the  township  to  its  officers ;  the  province 
to  its  townships ;  the  State  to  the  provinces ;  the  Union  to  the 
States ;  and  when  extended  to  the  nation,  it  becomes  the  doc- 
trine of  the  sovereignty  of  the  people. 

Thus,  in  the  United  States,  the  fundamental  principle  of  the 
republic  is  the  same  which  governs  the  greater  part  of  human 
actions;  republican  notions  insinuate  themselves  into  all  the 
ideas,  opinions,  and  habits  of  the  Americans,  whilst  they  are 
formerly  recognized  by  the  legislation :  and  before  this  legisla- 
tion can  be  altered  the  whole  community  must  undergo  very 
serious  changes.  In  the  United  States,  even  the  religion  of 
most  of  the  citizens  is  republican,  since  it  submits  the  truths  of 
the  other  v/orld  to  private  judgment :  as  in  politics  the  care  of  its 
temporal  interests  is  abandoned  to  the  good  sense  of  the  people. 
Thus  every  man  is  allowed  freely  to  take  that  road  which  he 
thinks  will  lead  him  to  heaven ;  just  as  the  law  permits  every 
citizen  to  have  the  right  of  choosing  his  government. 

It  is  evident  that  nothing  but  a  long  series  of  events,  all  hav- 
ing the  same  tendency,  can  substitute  for  this  combination  of 
laws,  opinions,  and  manners,  a  mass  of  opposite  opinions,  man- 
ners, and  laws. 

If  republican  principles  are  to  perish  in  America,  they  can 
only  yield  after  a  laborious  social  process,  often  interrupted, 
and  as  often  resumed ;  they  will  have  many  apparent  revivals, 
and  will  not  become  totally  extinct  until  an  entirely  new  people 
shall  have  succeeded  to  that  which  now  exists.  Now,  it  must 
be  admitted  that  there  is  no  symptom  or  presage  of  the  approach 
of  such  a  revolution.  There  is  nothing  more  striking  to  a  per- 
son newly  arrived  in  the  United  States,  than  the  kind  of  tumultu- 
ous agitation  in  which  he  finds  political  society.  The  laws  are 
incessantly  changing,  and  at  first  sight  it  seems  impossible  that 
a  people  so  variable  in  its  desires  should  avoid  adopting,  within 
a  short  space  of  time,  a  completely  new  form  of  government. 
Such  apprehensions  are,  however,  premature;  the  instability 


:i  I   I 

i 

I 


1'^ 


?! 


426 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


)»;;, 


which  affects  poHtical  institutions  is  of  two  kinds,  which  ought 
not  to  be  confounded :  the  first,  which  modifies  secondary  laws, 
is  not  incompatible  with  a  very  settled  state  of  society ;  the  other 
shakes  the  very  foundations  of  the  Constitution,  and  attacks 
the  fundamental  principles  of  legislation ;  this  species  of  insta- 
bility is  always  followed  by  trouble,  and  revolutions,  and  the 
nation  which  suffers  under  it  is  in  a  sfat^  of  violent  transition. 

Experience  shows  that  these  two  kinds  of  legislative  insta- 
bility have  no  necessary  connection ;  for  they  have  been  found 
united  or  separate,  according  to  times  and  circumstances.  The 
first  is  common  in  the  United  States,  but  not  the  second :  the 
Americans  often  change  their  laws,  but  the  foundation  of  the 
Constitution  is  respected. 

In  our  days  the  republican  principle  rules  in  America,  as  the 
monarchical  principle  did  in  France  under  Louis  XIV.  The 
French  of  that  period  were  not  only  friends  of  the  monarchy, 
but  they  thought  it  impossible  to  put  anything  in  its  place ;  they 
received  it  as  we  receive  the  rays  of  the  sun  and  the  return  of 
the  seasons.  Amongst  them  the  royal  power  had  neither  ad- 
vocates nor  opponents.  In  like  manner  does  the  republican 
government  exist  in  A.merica,  without  contention  or  opposition ; 
without  proofs  and  arguments,  by  a  tacit  agreement,  a  sort  of 
consensus  universalis.  It  is,  however,  my  opinion  that  by 
changing  their  administrative  forms  as  often  as  they  do,  the 
inhabitant  5  of  the  United  States  compromise  the  future  stability 
of  their  government. 

It  may  be  apprehended  that  men,  perpetually  thwarted  in 
their  designs  by  the  mutability  of  the  legislation,  will  learn  to 
look  upon  republican  institutions  as  an  inconvenient  form  of 
society ;  the  evil  resulting  from  the  instability  of  the  secondary 
enactments  might  then  raise  a  doubt  as  to  the  nature  of  the 
fundamental  principles  of  the  Constitution,  and  indirectly  bring 
about  a  revolution ;  but  this  epoch  is  still  very  remote. 

It  may,  however,  be  foreseen  even  now,  that  when  the  Ameri- 
cans lose  their  republican  institutions  they  will  speedily  arrive 
at  a  despotic  government,  without  a  long  interval  of  limited 
monarchy.  Montesquieu  remarked,  that  nothing  is  more  ab- 
solute than  the  authority  of  a  prince  who  immediately  succeeds 
a  republic,  since  the  powers  which  had  fearlessly  been  intrusted 
to  an  elected  magistrate  are  then  transferred  to  a  hereditary 
sovereign.    This  is  true  in  general,  but  it  is  more  peculiarly 


■    \ 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


487 


ds,  which  ought 
secondary  laws, 
iciety ;  the  other 
on,  and  attacks 
jpccies  of  insta- 
utiotis,  and  the 
mt  transition, 
jgislative  insta- 
ave  been  found 
nstances.  The 
:he  second:  the 
jndation  of  the 

\nierica,  as  the 
4is  XIV.  The 
the  monarchy, 
I  its  place ;  they 
d  the  return  of 
lad  neither  ad- 
the  republican 
1  or  opposition ; 
ment,  a  sort  of 
linion  that  by 
s  they  do,  the 
future  stability 

ly  thwarted  in 
1,  will  learn  to 
anient  form  of 
the  secondary 
nature  of  the 
idirectly  bring 
lote. 

len  the  Ameri- 
ipeedily  arrive 
val  of  limited 
g  is  more  ab- 
ately  succeeds 
been  intrusted 
)  a  hereditary 
ore  peculiarly 


applicable  to  a  democratic  republic.  In  the  United  States,  the 
magistrates  are  not  elected  by  a  particular  class  of  citizens,  but 
by  the  majority  of  the  nation ;  they  are  the  immediate  repre- 
sentatives if  the  passions  of  the  multitude;  and  as  they  are 
wholly  dependent  upon  its  pleasure,  they  excite  neither  hatred 
nor  fear:  hence,  as  1  have  already  shown,  very  little  care  has 
been  taken  to  limit  thei."  influence,  and  they  are  left  in  posses- 
sion of  a  vast  deal  of  arbitrary  power.  This  state  of  things  has 
engendered  habits  which  would  outlive  itself;  the  American 
magistrate  would  retain  his  power,  but  he  would  cease  to  be 
responsible  for  the  exercise  of  it ;  and  it  is  impossible  to  say 
what  bounds  could  then  be  set  to  tyranny. 

Some  of  our  European  politicians  expect  to  see  an  aristocracy 
arise  in  America,  and  tbev  already  predict  the  exact  period  at 
which  it  will  be  able  to  a?  •  the  reins  of  government.  I  have 
previously  observed,  am  'peat  my  assertion,  that  the  present 
tendency  of  American  society  appears  to  me  to  become  more 
and  more  democratic.  Nevertheless,  I  do  not  assert  that  the 
Americans  will  not,  at  some  future  time,  restrict  the  circle  of 
political  rights  in  their  country,  or  confiscate  those  rights  to 
the  advantage  of  a  single  individual ;  but  I  cannot  imagine  that 
they  will  ever  bestow  the  exclusive  exercise  of  them  upon  a 
privileged  class  of  citizens,  or,  in  other  words,  that  they  will 
ever  found  an  aristocracy. 

An  aristocratic  body  is  composed  of  a  certain  number  of  citi- 
zens who,  without  being  very  far  removed  from  the  mass  of  the 
people,  are,  nevertheless,  permanently  stationed  above  it:  a 
body  which  it  is  easy  to  touch  and  difficult  to  strike ;  with  which 
the  people  are  in  daily  contact,  but  with  which  they  can  never 
combine.  Nothing  can  be  imagined  more  contrary  to  nature 
and  to  the  secret  propensities  of  the  human  heart  than  a  sub- 
jection  of  this  kind ;  and  men  who  are  left  to  follow  their  own 
bent  will  always  prefer  the  arbitrary  power  of  a  king  to  the  regu- 
lar administration  of  an  aristocracy.  Aristocratic  institutions 
cannot  subsist  without  laying  down  the  inequality  of  men  as  a 
fundamental  principle,  as  a  part  and  parcel  of  the  legislation, 
affecting  the  condition  of  the  human  family  as  much  as  it  affects 
that  of  society ;  but  these  are  things  so  repugnant  to  natural 
equity  that  they  can  only  be  extorted  from  men  by  constraint. 

T  do  not  think  a  single  people  can  be  quoted,  since  human 
society  began  to  exist,  which  has,  by  its  own  free  will  and  by 


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428 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


its  own  exertions,  created  an  aristocracy  within  its  own  bosom. 
AH  the  aristocracies  of  the  Middle  Ages  were  founded  by  mili- 
tary conquest ;  the  conqueror  was  the  noble,  the  vanquished  be- 
came the  serf.  Inequality  was  then  imposed  by  force ;  and  after 
it  had  been  introduced  into  the  maners  of  the  country  it  main- 
tained its  own  authority,  and  was  sanctioned  by  the  legislation. 
Communities  have  existed  which  were  aristocratic  from  their 
earliest  origin,  owing  to  circumstances  anterior  to  that  event, 
and  which  became  more  democratic  in  each  succeeding  age. 
Such  was  the  destiny  of  the  Romans,  and  of  the  barbarians  after 
them.  But  a  people,  having  taken  its  rise  in  civilization  and 
democracy,  which  should  gradually  establish  an  inequality  of 
conditions,  until  it  arrived  at  inviolable  privileges  and  exclusive 
castes,  would  be  a  novelty  in  the  world ;  and  nothing  intimates 
that  America  is  likely  to  furnish  so  singular  an  example. 


ft 


II) 


Reflection  on  the  Causes  of  the  Commercial  Prosperity 
OF  THE  United  States 

The  Americans  destined  by  Nature  to  be  a  great  maritime  people — 
Extent  of  their  coasts — Depth  of  their  ports — Size  of  their  rivers — 
The  commercial  superiority  of  the  Anglo-Americans  less  attributable, 
however,  to  physical  circumstances  than  to  moral  and  intellectual 
causes — Reason  of  this  opinion — Future  destiny  of  the  Anglo-Ameri- 
cans as  a  commercial  nation — The  dissolution  of  the  Union  would 
not  check  the  maritime  vigor  of  the  States — Reason  of  this — Anglo- 
Americans  will  naturally  supply  the  wants  of  the  inhabitants  of 
South  America — They  will  become,  like  the  English,  the  factors  of 
a  great  portion  of  the  world. 

The  coast  of  the  United  States,  from  the  Bay  of  Fundy  to  the 
Sabine  River  in  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  is  more  than  two  thousand 
miles  in  extent.  These  shores  form  an  unbroken  line,  and  they 
are  all  subject  to  the  same  government.  No  nation  in  the  world 
possesses  vaster,  deeper,  or  more  secure  ports  for  shipping 
than  the  Americans. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  United  States  constitute  a  great  civil- 
ized people,  which  fortune  has  placed  in  the  midst  of  an  unculti- 
vated country  at  a  distance  of  three  thousand  miles  from  the 
central  point  of  civilization.  America  consequently  stands  in 
daily  need  of  European  trade.  The  Americans  will,  no  doubt, 
ultimately  succeed  in  producing  or  manufacturing  at  home 
most  of  the  articles  which  they  require ;  but  the  two  continents 


I  (I 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


429 


can  never  be  independent  of  each  other,  so  numerous  are  the 
natural  ties  which  exist  between  their  wants,  their  ideas,  their 
habits,  and  their  manners. 

The  Union  produces  peculiar  commodities  which  are  now 
become  necessary  to  us,  but  which  cannot  be  cultivated,  or  can 
only  be  raised  at  an  enormous  expense,  upon  the  soil  of  Europe. 
The  Americans  only  consume  a  small  portion  of  this  produce, 
and  they  are  willing  to  sell  us  the  rest.  Europe  is  therefore  the 
market  of  America,  as  America  is  the  market  of  Europe ;  and 
maritime  commerce  is  no  less  necessary  to  enable  the  inhab- 
itants of  the  United  States  to  transport  their  raw  materials  to 
the  ports  of  Europe,  than  it  is  to  enable  us  to  supply  them  with 
our  manufactured  produce.  The  United  States  were  therefore 
necessarily  reduced  to  the  alternative  of  increasing  the  business 
of  other  maritime  nations  to  a  great  extent,  if  they  had  them- 
selves declined  to  enter  into  commerce,  as  the  Spaniards  of 
Mexico  have  hitherto  done ;  or,  in  the  second  place,  of  becom- 
ing one  of  the  first  trading  powers  of  the  globe. 

The  Anglo-Americans  have  always  displayed  a  very  decided 
taste  for  the  sea.  The  Declaration  of  Independence  broke  the 
commercial  restrictions  which  united  them  to  England,  and 
gave  a  fresh  and  powerful  stimulus  to  their  maritime  genius. 
Ever  since  that  time,  the  shipping  of  the  Union  has  increased 
in  almost  the  same  rapid  proportion  as  the  number  of  its  in 
habitants.  The  Americans  themselves  now  transport  to  their 
own  shores  nine-tenths  of  the  European  produce  which  they 
consume.?  And  they  also  bring  three-quarters  of  the  exports 
of  the  New  World  to  the  European  consumer.*  The  ships  of 
the  United  States  fill  the  docks  of  Havre  and  of  Liverpool; 
whilst  the  number  of  English  and  French  vessels  which  are  to 
be  seen  at  New  York  is  comparatively  small.* 


I:. 


gThe  total  value  of  goods  imported 
during  the  year  which  ended  on  Septem- 
ber 30,  1832,  was  $101,129,366.  The  value 
of  the  cargoes  of  foreign  vessels  did  not 
amount  to  $10,731,039,  or  about  one- 
tenth  of  the  entire  sum.  . 

h  The  value  of  goods  exported  dunng 
the  same  year  amounted  to  $87,176,943; 
the  value  of  goods  exported  by  foreign 
vessels  amounted  to  $21,036,183,  or  about 
one  quarter  of  the  whole  sum.  (Will- 
iams's "  Register,"  1833.  p.  39?.)     .  .  , 

«The  tonnage  of  the  vessels  which 
entered  all  the  ports  of  the  Union  in  the 
years  1829,  1830.  and  1831,  amounted  to 

?  1.307,719  tons,  of  which  S44.S7«  tons  were 
oreign  vessels;  they  stood,  therefore,  to 
the  American  vessels  in  a  ratio  of  about 
16  to  100.    ("  National  Calendar,"  1833. 


p.  304.)  The  tonnage  of  the  English 
vessels  which  entered  the  ports  of  Lon- 
don, Liverpool,  and  Hull,  in  the  ycnrs 
i8ao,  1826,  and  1831,  amounted  to  443.800 
tons.  The  foreign  vessels  which  entered 
the  same  ports  during  the  same  years 
amounted  to  159.431  tons.  The  ratio  be- 
tween them  was,  therefore,  about  36  to 
100.  ("  Companion  to  the  Almanac^," 
1834,  p.  160.)  In  the  year  1833  the  ratio 
between  the  foreign  and  British  ships 
which  entered  the  ports  of  Great  Britam 
was  29  to  100.  [These  statements  relate 
to  a  condition  of  affa'rs  which  has 
ceased  to  exist;  the  Civil  War  and  the 
heavy  taxation  of  th^  United  States  en- 
tirely altered  the  trade  and  navigation 
of  tlie  country.] 


'  ■'*^«**«wn«f  **a^D'aaii-,:-._-i. 


i 


430 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


t  ( 


Thus,  not  only  does  the  American  merchant  face  the  compe- 
tition of  his  own  countrymen,  but  he  even  supports  that  of  for- 
eign nations  in  their  own  ports  with  success.  This  is  readily 
explained  by  the  fact  that  the  vessels  of  the  United  Stater  can 
cross  the  seas  at  a  cheaper  rate  than  any  other  vessels  in  the 
world.  As  long  as  the  mercantile  shipping  of  the  United 
States  preserves  this  superiority,  it  will  not  only  retain  what  it 
has  acquired,  but  it  will  constantly  increase  in  prosperity. 

It  is  difficult  to  say  for  what  reason  the  Americans  can  trade 
at  a  lower  rate  than  other  nations ;  and  one  is  at  first  led  to 
attribute  this  circumstance  to  the  physical  or  natural  advan- 
tages which  are  within  their  reach ;  but  this  supposition  is  er- 
roneous. The  American  vessels  cost  almost  as  much  to  build 
as  our  own ;  /  they  are  not  better  built,  and  they  generally  last 
for  a  shorter  time.  The  pay  of  the  American  sailor  is  more  con- 
siderable than  the  pay  on  board  European  ships;  which  is 
proved  by  the  great  number  of  Europeans  who  are  to  be  met 
with  in  the  merchant  vessels  of  the  United  States.  But  I  am 
of  opinion  that  the  true  cause  of  their  superiority  must  not  be 
sought  for  in  physical  advantages,  but  that  it  is  wholly  attribut- 
able to  their  moral  and  intellectual  qualities. 

The  following  comparison  will  illustrate  my  meaning.  Dur- , 
ing  the  campaigns  of  the  Revolution  the  French  introduced  a 
new  system  of  tactics  into  the  art  of  war,  which  perplexed  the 
oldest  generals,  and  very  nearly  destroyed  the  most  ancient 
monarchies  in  Europe.  They  undertook  (what  had  never  before 
been  attempted)  to  make  shift  without  a  number  of  things  which 
had  always  been  held  to  be  indispensable  in  warfare ;  they  re- 
quired novel  exertions  on  the  part  of  their  troops  which  no  civ- 
ilized nations  had  ever  thought  of ;  they  achieved  great  actions 
in  an  incredibly  short  space  of  time ;  and  they  risked  human  life 
without  hesitation  to  obtain  the  object  in  view.  The  French 
had  less  money  and  fewer  men  than  their  enemies;  their  re- 
sources were  infinitely  inferior;  nevertheless  they  were  con- 
stantly victorious,  until  their  adversaries  chose  to  imitate  their 
example. 

The  Americans  have  introduced  a  similar  system  into  their 
commercial  speculations ;  and  they  do  for  cheapness  what  the 
French  did  for  conquest.    The  European  sailor  navigates  with 


? 


/Materials    are,    generally    speaking, 
less  expensive  in  America  than  in  Eu* 


rope,  but  the  price  of  labor  is  much 
higher. 


« t 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


431 


prudence ;  he  only  sets  sail  when  the  weather  is  favorable ;  if  an 
unforeseen  accident  befalls  him,  he  puts  into  port ;  at  night  he 
furls  a  portion  of  his  canvas ;  and  when  the  whitening  billows 
intimate  the  vicinity  of  land,  he  checks  his  way,  and  takes  an 
observation  of  the  sun.  But  the  American  neglects  these  pre- 
cautions and  braves  these  dangers.  He  weighs  anchor  in  the 
midst  of  tempestuous  gales ;  by  night  and  by  day  he  spreads  his 
sheets  to  the  wind ;  he  repairs  as  he  goes  along  such  damage  as 
his  vessel  may  have  sustained  from  the  storm ;  and  when  he  at 
last  approaches  the  term  of  his  voyage,  he  darts  onward  to  the 
shore  as  if  he  already  descried  a  port.  The  Americans  are  often 
shipwrecked,  but  no  trader  crosses  the  seas  so  rapidly.  And 
as  they  perform  the  same  distance  in  a  shorter  time,  they  can 
perform  it  at  a  cheaper  rate. 

The  European  touches  several  times  at  different  ports  in  the 
course  of  a  long  voyage ;  he  loses  a  good  deal  of  precious  time 
in  making  the  harbor,  or  in  waiting  for  a  favorable  wind  to 
leave  it ;  and  he  pays  daily  dues  to  be  allowed  to  remain  there. 
The  American  starts  from  Boston  to  go  to  purchase  tea  in 
China ;  he  arrives  at  Canton,  stays  there  a  few  days,  and  then 
returns.  In  less  than  two  years  he  has  sailed  as  far  as  the  entire 
circumference  of  the  globe,  and  he  has  seen  land  but  once.  It 
is  true  that  during  a  voyage  of  eight  or  ten  months  he  has  drunk 
brackish  water  and  lived  upon  salt  meat ;  that  he  has  been  in  a 
continual  contest  with  the  sea,  with  disease,  and  with  a  tedious 
existence ;  but  upon  his  return  he  can  sell  a  pound  of  his  tea  for 
a  half-penny  less  than  the  English  merchant,  and  his  purpose  is 
accomplished. 

I  cannot  better  explain  my  meaning  than  by  saying  that  the 
Americans  affect  a  sort  of  heroism  in  their  manner  of  trading. 
But  the  European  merchant  will  always  find  it  very  difficult  to 
imitate  his  American  competitor,  who,  in  adopting  the  system 
which  I  have  just  described,  follows  not  only  a  calculation  of  his 
gain,  but  an  impulse  of  his  nature. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  United  States  are  subject  to  all  the 
wants  and  all  the  desires  which  result  from  an  advanced  stage 
of  civilization ;  but  as  they  are  not  surrounded  by  a  community 
admirably  adapted,  like  that  of  Europe,  to  satisfy  their  wants, 
they  are  often  obliged  to  procure  for  themselves  the  various 
articles  which  education  and  habit  have  rendered  necessaries. 
In  America  it  sometimes  happens  that  the  same  individual  tills 


1! 


: 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


his  field,  builds  his  dwelling,  contrives  his  tools,  makes  his 
shoes,  and  weaves  the  coarse  stuff  of  which  his  dress  is  com- 
posed. This  circumstance  is  prejudicial  to  the  excellence  of  the 
work ;  but  it  powerfully  contributes  to  awaken  the  intelligence 
of  the  workman.  Nothing  tends  to  materalize  man,  and  to  de- 
prive his  work  of  the  faintest  trace  of  mind,  more  than  extreme 
division  of  labor.  In  a  country  like  America,  where  men  de- 
voted to  special  occupations  are  rare,  a  long  apprenticeship 
cannot  be  required  from  anyone  who  embraces  a  profession. 
The  Americans,  therefore,  change  their  means  of  gaining  a 
livelihood  very  readily ;  and  they  suit  their  occupations  to  the 
exigencies  of  the  moment,  in  the  manner  most  profitable  to 
themselves.  Men  are  to  be  met  with  who  have  successively 
been  barristers,  farmers,  merchants,  ministers  of  the  gospel, 
and  physicians.  If  the  American  be  less  perfect  in  each  craft 
than  the  European,  at  least  there  is  scarcely  any  trade  with 
which  he  is  utterly  unacquainted.  His  capacity  is  more  general, 
and  the  circle  of  his  intelligence  is  enlarged. 

The  inhabitants  of  the  United  States  are  never  fettered  by 
the  axioms  of  their  profession ;  they  escape  from  all  the  pre- 
judices of  their  present  station ;  they  are  not  more  attached  to 
one  line  of  operation  than  to  another ;  they  are  not  more  prone 
to  employ  an  old  method  than  a  new  one ;  they  have  no  rooted 
habits,  and  they  easily  shake  off  the  influence  which  the  habits 
of  other  nations  might  exercise  upon  their  minds  from  a  con- 
viction that  their  country  is  unlike  any  other,  and  that  its  situa- 
tion is  without  a  precedent  in  the  world.  America  is  a  land  of 
wonders,  in  which  everything  is  in  constant  motion,  and  every 
movement  seems  an  improvement.  The  idea  of  novelty  is  there 
indissolubly  connected  with  the  idea  of  amelioration.  No  nat- 
ural boundary  seems  to  be  set  to  the  efforts  of  man ;  and  what 
is  not  yet  done  is  only  what  he  has  not  yet  attempted  to  do. 

This  perpetual  change  which  goes  on  in  the  United  States, 
these  frequent  vicissitudes  of  fortune,  accompanied  by  such  un- 
foreseen fluctuations  in  private  and  in  public  wealth,  serve  to 
keep  the  minds  of  the  citizens  in  a  perpetual  state  of  feverish 
agitation,  which  admirably  invigorates  their  exertions,  and 
keeps  them  in  a  state  of  excitement  above  the  ordinary  level  of 
mankind.  The  whole  life  of  an  American  is  passed  like  a  game 
of  chance,  a  revolutionary  crisis,  or  a  battle.  As  the  same 
causes  are  continually  in  operation  throughout  the  country, 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


433 


they  ultimately  impart  an  irresistible  impulse  to  the  national 
character.  The  American,  taken  as  a  chance  specimen  of  his 
countrymen,  must  then  be  a  man  of  singular  warmth  in  his  de- 
sires, enterprising,  fond  of  adventure,  and,  above  all,  of  innova- 
tion. The  same  bent  is  manifest  in  all  that  he  does ;  he  intro- 
duces it  into  his  political  laws,  his  religious  doctrines,  his 
theories  of  social  economy,  and  his  domestic  occupations ;  he 
bears  it  with  him  in  the  depths  of  the  backwoods,  as  well  as  in 
the  business  of  the  city.  It  is  this  same  passion,  applied  to  mari- 
time commerce,  which  makes  him  the  cheapest  and  the  quickest 
trader  in  the  world. 

As  long  as  the  sailors  of  the  United  States  retain  these  in- 
spiriting advantages,  and  the  practical  superiority  which  they 
derive  from  them,  they  will  not  only  continue  to  supply  the 
wants  of  the  producers  and  consumers  of  their  own  country, 
but  they  will  tend  more  and  more  to  become,  like  the  English, 
the  factors  of  all  other  peoples.*  This  prediction  has  already 
begun  to  be  realized ;  we  perceive  that  the  American  traders 
are  introducing  themselves  as  intermediate  agents  in  the  com- 
merce of  several  European  nations ;  I  and  America  will  offer  a 
still  wider  field  to  their  enterprise. 

The  great  colonies  which  were  founded  in  South  America  by 
the  Spaniards  and  the  Portuguese  have  since  become  empires. 
Civil  war  and  oppression  now  lay  waste  those  extensive  regions. 
Population  does  not  increase,  and  the  thinly  scattered  inhab- 
itants are  too  much  absorbed  in  the  cares  of  self-defense  even 
to  attempt  any  amelioration  of  their  condition.  Such,  however, 
will  not  always  be  the  case.  Europe  has  succeeded  by  her  own 
efforts  in  piercing  the  gloom  of  the  Middle  Ages ;  South  Amer- 
ica has  the  same  Christian  laws  and  Christian  manners  as  we 
have;  she  contains  all  the  germs  of  civilization  which  have 
grown  amidst  the  nations  of  Europe  or  their  offsets,  added  to 
the  advantages  to  be  derived  from  our  example:  why  then 
should  she  always  remain  uncivilized  ?  It  is  clear  that  the  ques- 
tion is  simply  one  of  time ;  at  some  future  period,  which  may 


k  It  must  not  be  supposed  that  En?- 
lish  vessels  are  exclusively  employed  in 
transportinR  foreign  produce  into  Eng- 
land, or  British  produce  to  foreign 
countries;  at  the  present  day  the  mer- 
chant shipping  of  England  may  be  re- 
garded in  the  light  of  a  vast  system  of 
public  conveyances,  ready  to  serve  all 

Vol.  I.— 28 


the  producers  of  the  world,  and  to  open 
communications  between  all  peoples. 
The  maritime  genius  of  the  Americans 
prompts  them  to  enter  into  competition 
with  the  English. 

/  Part  of  the  commerce  of  the  Medi- 
terranean is  already  carried  on  by 
American  vessels. 


434 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


be  more  or  less  remote,  the  inhabitants  of  South  America  will 
constitute  flourishing  and  enlightened  nations. 

But  when  the  Spaniards  and  Portuguese  of  South  America 
begin  to  feel  the  wants  common  to  all  civilized  nations,  they 
will  still  be  unable  to  satisfy  those  wants  for  themselves;  as 
the  youngest  children  of  civilization,  they  must  perforce  admit 
the  superiority  of  their  elder  brethren.  They  will  be  agricul- 
turists long  before  they  succeed  in  manufactures  or  commerce, 
and  they  will  require  the  mediation  of  strangers  to  exchange 
their  produce  beyond  seas  for  those  articles  for  which  a  de- 
mand will  begin  to  be  felt. 

It  is  unquestionable  that  the  Americans  of  the  North  will  one 
day  supply  the  wants  of  the  Americans  of  the  South.  Nature 
has  placed  them  in  contiguity,  and  has  furnished  the  former 
with  every  means  of  knowing  and  appreciating  those  demands, 
of  establishing  a  permanent  connection  with  those  States,  and 
of  gradually  filling  their  markets.  The  merchants  of  the  United 
States  could  only  forfeit  these  natural  advantages  if  he  were 
very  inferior  to  the  merchant  of  Europe ;  to  whom  he  is,  on  the 
contrary,  superior  in  several  respects.  The  Americans  of  the 
United  States  already  exercise  a  very  considerable  moral  in- 
fluence upon  all  the  peoples  of  the  New  World.  They  are  the 
source  of  intelligence,  and  all  the  nations  which  inhabit  the 
same  continent  are  already  accustomed  to  consider  them  as  the 
most  enlightened,  the  most  powerful,  and  the  most  wealthy 
members  of  the  great  American  family.  All  eyes  are  therefore 
turned  towards  the  Union ;  and  the  States  of  which  that  body  is 
composed  are  the  models  which  the  other  communities  try  to 
imitate  to  the  best  of  their  power ;  it  is  from  the  United  States 
that  they  borrow  their  political  principles  and  their  laws. 

The  Americans  of  the  United  States  stand  in  precisely  the 
same  position  with  regard  to  the  peoples  of  South  America  as 
their  fathers,  the  English,  occupy  with  regard  to  the  Italians, 
the  Spaniards,  the  Portuguese,  and  all  those  nations  of  Europe 
which  receive  their  articles  of  daily  consumption  from  England, 
because  they  are  less  advanced  in  civilization  and  trade.  Eng- 
land is  at  this  time  the  natural  emporium  of  almost  all  the 
nations  which  are  within  its  reach;  the  American  Union 
will  perform  the  same  part  in  the  other  hemisphere ;  and  every 
community  which  is  founded,  or  which  prospers  in  the  New 
World,  is  founded  and  prospers  to  the  advantage  of  the  Anglo- 
Americans. 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


435 


If  the  Union  were  to  be  dissolved,  the  commerce  of  the  States 
which  now  compose  it  would  undoubtedly  be  checked  for  a 
time;  but  this  consequence  would  be  less  perceptible  than  is 
generally  supposed.  It  is  evident  that,  whatever  may  happen, 
the  commercial  States  will  remain  united.  They  are  all  con- 
tiguous to  each  other ;  they  have  identically  the  same  opinions, 
interests,  and  manners ;  and  they  are  alone  competent  to  form  a 
very  great  maritime  power.  Even  if  the  South  of  the  Union 
were  to  become  independent  of  the  North,  it  would  still  require 
the  services  of  those  States.  I  have  already  observed  that  the 
South  is  not  a  commercial  country,  and  nothing  intimates  that 
it  is  likely  to  become  so.  The  Americans  of  the  South  of  the 
United  States  will  therefore  be  obliged,  for  a  long  time  to  come, 
to  have  recourse  to  strangers  to  export  their  produce,  and  to 
supply  them  with  the  commodities  which  are  requisite  to  satisfy 
their  wants.  But  the  Northern  States  are  undoubtedly  able  to 
act  as  their  intermediate  agents  cheaper  than  any  other  mer- 
chants. They  will  therefore  retain  that  employment,  for  cheap- 
ness is  the  sovereign  law  of  commerce.  National  claims  and 
national  prejudices  cannot  resist  the  influence  of  cheapness. 
Nothing  can  be  more  virulent  than  the  hatred  which  exists  be- 
tween the  Americans  of  the  United  States  and  the  English.  But 
notwithstanding  these  inimical  feelings,  the  Americans  derive 
the  greater  part  of  their  manufactured  commodities  from  Eng- 
land, because  England  supplies  them  at  a  cheaper  rate  than 
any  other  nation.  Thus  the  increasing  prosperity  of  America 
turns,  notwithstanding  the  grudges  of  the  Americans,  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  British  manufactures. 

Reason  shows  and  experience  proves  that  no  commercial 
prosperity  can  be  durable  if  it  cannot  be  united,  in  case  of  need, 
to  naval  force.  This  truth  is  as  well  understood  in  the  United 
States  ix>  ';'.  can  be  anywhere  else :  the  Americans  are  already 
able  to  make  their  flag  respected ;  in  a  few  years  they  will  be 
able  to  make  it  feared.  I  am  convinced  that  the  dismemberment 
of  the  Union  would  not  have  the  eflfect  of  diminishing  the  naval 
power  of  the  Americans,  but  that  it  would  powerfully  con- 
tribute to  increase  it.  At  the  present  time  the  commercial 
States  are  connected  with  others  which  have  not  the  same  inter- 
ests, and  which  frequently  yield  an  unwiHing  consent  to  the  in- 
crease of  a  maritime  power  by  which  they  are  only  indirectly 
benefited.    If,  on  the  contrary,  the  commercial  States  of  the 


43^ 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


Union  formed  one  independent  nation,  commerce  would  be- 
come the  foremost  of  their  national  interests ;  they  would  con- 
sequently be  willing  to  make  very  great  sacrifices  to  protect 
their  shipping,  and  nothing  would  prevent  them  from  pursuing 
their  designs  upon  this  point. 

Nations,  as  well  as  men,  almost  always  betray  the  most 
prominent  features  of  their  future  destiny  in  their  earliest  years. 
When  I  contemplate  the  ardor  with  which  the  Anglo-Ameri- 
cans prosecute  commercial  enterprise,  the  advantages  which  be- 
friend them,  and  the  success  of  their  undertakings,  I  cannot  re- 
frain from  believing  that  they  will  one  day  become  the  first 
maritime  power  of  the  globe.  They  are  born  to  rule  the  seas, 
as  the  Romans  were  to  conquer  the  world. 

•  .       "■ 

CONCLUSION 

I  have  now  nearly  reached  the  close  of  my  inquiry ;  hitherto, 
in  speaking  of  the  future  destiny  of  the  United  States,  I  have 
endeavored  to  divide  my  subject  into  distinct  portions,  in  order 
to  study  each  of  them  with  more  attention.  My  present  object 
is  to  embrace  the  whole  from  one  single  point ;  the  remarks  I 
shall  make  will  be  less  detailed,  but  they  v/ill  be  more  sure.  I 
shall  perceive  each  object  less  distinctly,  but  I  shall  descry  the 
principal  facts  with  more  certainty.  A  traveller  who  has  just 
left  the  walls  of  an  immense  city,  climbs  the  neighboring  hill ; 
as  he  goes  farther  oft  he  loses  sight  of  the  men  whom  he  has  so 
recently  quitted ;  their  dwellings  are  confused  in  a  dense  mass ; 
he  can  no  longer  distinguish  the  public  squares,  and  he  can 
scarcely  trace  out  the  great  thoroughfares ;  but  his  eye  has  less 
difHculty  in  following  the  boundaries  of  the  city,  and  for  the 
first  time  he  sees  the  shape  of  the  vast  whole.  Such  is  the  future 
destiny  of  the  British  race  in  North  America  to  my  eye ;  the  de- 
tails of  the  stupendous  picture  are  overhung  with  shade,  but  I 
conceive  a  clear  idea  of  the  entire  subject. 

The  territory  now  occupied  or  possessed  by  the  United  States 
of  America  forms  about  one-twentieth  part  of  the  habitable 
earth.  But  extensive  as  these  confines  are,  it  must  not  be  sup- 
posed that  the  Anglo-American  race  will  always  remain  with- 
in them ;  indeed,  it  has  already  far  overstepped  them. 

There  was  once  a  time  at  which  we  also  might  have  created 
a  great  French  nation  in  the  American  wilds,  to  counterbal- 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


437 


ance  the  influence  of  the  English  upon  the  destinies  of  the  New 
World,  France  formerly  possessed  a  territory  in  North  Amer- 
ica, scarcely  less  extensive  than  the  whole  of  Europe.  The  three 
greatest  rivers  of  that  continent  then  flowed  within  her  do- 
minions. The  Indian  tribes  which  dwelt  between  the  mouth  of 
the  St.  Lawrence  and  the  delta  of  the  Mississippi  were  unac- 
customed to  any  other  tongue  but  ours ;  and  all  the  European 
settlements  scattered  over  that  immense  region  recalled  the 
traditions  of  our  country.  Louisbourg,  Montmorency,  Du- 
quesne,  St.  Louis,  Vincennes,  New  Orleans  (for  such  were  the 
names  they  bore)  are  words  dear  to  France  and  familiar  to  our 
ears. 

But  a  concourse  of  circumstances,  which  it  would  be  tedious 
to  enumerate,*"  have  deprived  us  of  this  magnificent  inheritance. 
Wherever  the  French  settlers  were  numerically  weak  and  par- 
tially established,  they  have  disappeared :  those  who  remain  are 
collected  on  a  small  extent  of  country,  and  are  now  subject  to 
other  laws.  The  400,000  French  inhabitants  of  Lower  Canada 
constitute,  at  the  present  time,  the  remnant  of  an  old  nation 
lost  in  the  midst  of  a  new  people.  A  foreign  population  is  in- 
creasing around  them  unceasingly  and  on  all  sides,  which  al- 
ready penetrates  amongst  the  ancient  masters  of  the  country, 
predominates  in  their  cities  and  corrupts  their  language.  This 
population  is  identical  with  that  of  the  United  States;  it  is 
therefore  with  truth  that  I  asserted  that  the  British  race  is  not 
confined  within  the  frontiers  of  the  Union,  since  it  already  ex- 
tends to  the  northeast. 

To  the  northwest  nothing  is  to  be  met  with  but  a  few  in- 
significant Russian  settlements ;  but  to  the  southwest,  Mexico 
presents  a  barrier  to  the  Anglo-Americans.  Thus,  the  Span- 
iards and  the  Anglo-Americans  are,  properly  speaking,  the  only 
two  races  which  divide  the  possession  of  the  New  World.  The 
limits  of  separation  between  them  have  been  settled  by  a  treaty ; 
but  although  the  conditions  of  that  treaty  are  exceedingly  fav- 
orable to  the  Anglo-Americans,  I  do  not  doubt  that  they  will 
shortly  infringe  this  arrangement.  Vast  provinces,  extending 
beyond  the  frontiers  of  the  Union  towards  Mexico,  are  still 
destitute  of  inhabitants.    The  natives  of  the  United  States  will 


wThe  foremost  of  these  circum- 
stances is,  that  nations  which  are  accus- 
tomed to  free  institutions  and  municipal 
government  are  better  able  than  any 
others  to  found  prosperous  colonies.  The 


habit  of  thinking  and  Koverning  for  one- 
self is  indispensable  in  a  new  country, 
where  success  necessarily  depends,  in  a 
frreat  measure,  upon  the  individual  ex- 
ertions of  the  settlers. 


438 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


forestall  the  rightful  occupants  of  these  solitary  regions.  They 
will  take  possession  of  the  soil,  and  establish  social  institutions, 
so  that  when  the  legal  owner  arrives  at  length,  he  will  find  the 
wilderness  under  cultivation,  and  strangers  quietly  settled  in  the 
midst  of  his  inheritance." 

The  lands  of  the  New  World  belong  to  the  first  occupant  and 
they  are  the  natural  reward  of  the  swiftest  pioneer.  Even  the 
countries  which  are  already  peopled  will  have  some  difliculty 
in  securing  themselves  from  this  invasion.  I  have  already  al- 
luded to  what  is  taking  place  in  the  province  of  Texas.  The 
inhabitants  of  the  United  States  are  perpetually  migrating  to 
Texas,  where  they  purchase  land ;  and  although  they  conform 
to  the  laws  of  the  country,  they  are  gradually  founding  the  em- 
pire of  their  own  language  and  their  own  manners.  The  prov- 
ince of  Texas  is  still  part  of  the  Mexican  dominions,  but  it  will 
soon  contain  no  Mexicans ;  the  same  thing  has  occurred  when- 
ever the  Anglo-Americans  have  come  into  contact  with  popula- 
tions of  a  different  origin. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  the  British  race  has  acquired  an 
amazing  preponderance  over  all  the  other  European  races  in 
the  New  World ;  and  that  it  is  very  superior  to  them  in  civiliza- 
tion, in  industry,  and  in  power.  As  long  as  it  is  only  surrounded 
by  desert  or  thinly  peopled  countries,  as  long  as  it  encounters  no 
dense  populations  upon  its  route,  through  which  it  cannot  work 
its  way,  it  will  assuredly  continue  to  spread.  The  lines  marked 
out  by  treaties  will  not  stop  it ;  but  it  will  everywhere  transgress 
these  imaginary  barriers. 

The  geographical  position  of  the  British  race  in  the  New 
World  is  peculiarly  favorable  to  its  rapid  increase.  Above  its 
northern  frontiers  the  icy  regions  of  the  Pole  extend ;  and  a  few 
degrees  below  its  southern  confines  lies  the  burning  climate  of 
the  Equator.  The  Anglo-Americans  are,  therefore,  placed  in 
the  most  temperate  and  habitable  zone  of  the  continent. 

It  is  generally  supposed  that  the  prodigious  increase  of  popu- 
lation in  the  United  States  is  posterior  to  their  Declaration  of 
Independence.  But  this  is  an  error :  the  population  increased 
as  rapidly  under  the  colonial  system  as  it  does  at  the  present 
day ;  that  is  to  say,  it  doubled  in  about  twenty-two  years.  But 
this  proportion,  which  is  now  applied  to  millions,  was  then 

n  [This    was    speedily    accomplished,       Russian  settlements  were  acquired  by 
and  ere  long  both  Texas  and  California       purchase.] 
formed  part  of  the  United  States.    The 


DEMOCRACY  IN   AMERICA 


439 


applied  to  thousands  uf  inhabitants ;  and  the  same  (act  which 
was  scarcely  noticeable  a  century  ago,  is  now  evident  to  every 
observer. 

The  British  subjects  in  Canada,  who  are  dependent  on  a  king, 
augment  and  spread  almost  as  rapidly  as  the  British  settlers  of 
the  United  States,  who  live  under  a  republican  government. 
During  the  war  of  independence,  which  lasted  eight  years,  the 
population  continued  to  increase  without  intermission  in  the 
same  ratio.  Although  powerful  Indian  nations  allied  with  the 
English  existed  at  that  time  upon  the  western  frontiers,  the 
emigration  westward  was  never  checked.  Whilst  the  enemy 
laid  waste  the  shores  of  the  Atlantic,  Kentucky,  the  western 
parts  of  Pennsylvania,  and  the  States  of  Vermont  and  of  Maine 
were  filling  with  inhabitants.  Nor  did  the  unsettled  state  of 
the  Constitution,  which  succeeded  the  war,  prevent  the  increase 
of  the  population,  or  stop  its  progress  across  the  wilds.  Thus, 
the  difference  of  laws,  the  various  conditions  of  peace  and  war, 
of  order  and  of  anarchy,  have  exercised  no  perceptible  influ- 
ence upon  the  gradual  development  of  the  Anglo-Americans. 
This  may  be  readily  understood ;  for  the  fact  is,  that  no  causes 
are  sufficiently  general  to  exercise  a  simultaneous  influence 
over  the  whole  of  so  extensive  a  territory.  One  portion  of  the 
country  always  offers  a  sure  retreat  from  the  calamities  which 
afflict  another  part ;  and  however  great  may  be  the  evil,  the 
remedy  which  is  at  hand  is  greater  still. 

It  must  not,  then,  be  imagined  that  the  impulse  of  the  British 
race  in  the  New  World  can  be  arrested.  The  dismemberment  o' 
the  Union,  and  the  hostilities  which  might  ensue,  the  abolition 
of  republican  institutions,  and  the  tyrannical  government  which  , 
might  succeed  it,  may  retard  this  impulse,  but  they  cannot  pre- 
vent it  from  ultimately  fulfilling  the  destinies  to  which  that  race 
is  reserved.  No  power  upon  earth  can  close  upon  the  emigrants 
that  fertile  wilderness  which  oflfers  resources  to  all  industry, 
and  a  refuge  from  all  want.  Future  events,  of  whatever  nature 
they  may  be,  will  not  deprive  the  Americans  of  their  climate  or 
of  their  inland  seas,  of  their  great  rivers  or  of  their  exuberant 
soil.  Nor  will  bad  laws,  revolutions,  and  anarchy  be  able  to 
obliterate  that  love  of  prosperity  and  that  spirit  of  enterprise 
which  seem  to  be  the  distinctive  characteristics  of  their  race,  or 
to  extinguish  that  knowledge  which  guides  them  on  their  way. 

Thus,  in  the  midst  of  the  uncertain  future,  one  event  at  least 


I 


I 


440 


DE  TQCQUEVILLE 


w 


'  1 


I   I 


is  sure.  At  a  period  which  may  be  said  to  be  near  (for  we  are 
speaking  of  the  Hfe  of  a  nation),  the  Anglo-Americans  will  alone 
cover  the  immense  space  contained  between  the  polar  regions 
and  the  tropics,  extending  from  the  coasts  of  the  Atlantic  to  the 
shores  of  the  Pacific  Ocean.  The  territory  which  will  probably 
be  occupied  by  the  Anglo-Americans  at  some  future  time,  may 
be  computed  to  equal  three-quarters  of  Europe  in  extent."  The 
climate  of  the  Union  is  upon  the  whole  preferable  to  that  of 
Europe,  and  its  natural  advantages  are  not  less  great;  it  is 
therefore  evident  that  its  population  will  at  some  future  time  be 
proportionate  to  our  own.  Europe,  divided  as  it  is  between  so 
many  different  nations,  and  torn  as  it  has  been  by  incessant 
wars  and  the  barbarous  manners  of  the  Middle  Ages,  has  not- 
withstanding attained  a  population  of  410  inhabitants  to  the 
square  league./*  What  cause  can  prevent  the  United  States 
from  having  as  numerous  a  population  in  time  ? 

Many  ages  must  elapse  before  the  divers  offsets  of  the  Brit- 
ish race  in  America  cease  to  present  the  same  homogeneous 
characteristics:  and  the  time  cannot  be  foreseen  at  which  a 
permanent  inequality  of  conditions  will  be  established  in  the 
New  World.  Whatever  differences  may  arise,  from  peace  or 
from  war,  from  freedom  or  oppression,  from  prosperity  or  want, 
between  the  destinies  of  the  different  descendants  of  the  great 
Anglo-American  family;  they  will  at  least  preserve  an  analogous 
social  condition,  and  they  will  hold  in  common  the  customs  and 
the  opinions  to  which  that  social  condition  has  given  birth. 

In  the  Middle  Ages,  the  tie  of  religion  was  sufficiently  power- 
ful to  imbue  all  the  different  populations  of  Europe  with  the 
same  civilization.  The  British  of  the  New  World  have  a  thou- 
sand other  reciprocal  ties ;  and  they  live  at  a  time  when  the 
tendency  to  equality  is  general  amongst  mankind.  The  Middle 
Ages  were  a  period  when  everything  was  broken  up;  when 
each  people,  each  province,  each  city,  and  each  family,  had  a 
strong  tendency  to  maintain  its  distinct  individuality.  At  the 
present  time  an  opposite  tendency  seems  to  prevail,  and  the 
nations  seem  to  be  advancing  to  unity.    Our  means  of  intel- 


o  The  United  States  already  extend 
over  a  territory  equal  to  one-half  of 
Europe.  The  area  of  Europe  is  500,000 
square  leagues,  and  its  nonulntion  205.- 
000,000  of  inhabitants.  ("  Make  Brun," 
liv.  114.  vol.  vi.  p.  4.) 

TThis  computation  is  given  in  French 
leagues,  which  were  in  use  when  the  au- 


thor wrote.  Twenty  years  later,  in  1850, 
the  superficial  area  of  the  United  States 
had  been  extended  to  3,306,865  square 
miles  of  territory,  which  is  about  the 
area  of  Europe.]" 

p  See  •'  Malte  Brun,"  liv.  u6,  vol.  vi. 
p.  92. 


./ 


DEMOCRACY  IN  AMERICA 


441 


lectual  intercourse  unite  the  most  remote  parts  of  the  earth; 
and  it  is  impossible  for  men  to  remain  strangers  to  each  other, 
or  to  be  ignorant  of  the  events  which  are  taking  place  in  any 
corner  of  the  globe.  The  consequence  is  that  there  is  less  dif- 
ference, at  the  present  day,  between  the  Europeans  and  their 
descendants  in  the  New  World,  than  there  was  between  certain 
towns  in  the  thirteenth  century  which  were  only  separated  by  a 
river.  If  this  tendency  to  assimilation  brings  foreign  nations 
closer  to  each  other,  it  must  d  fortiori  prevent  the  descendants 
of  the  same  people  from  becoming  aliens  to  each  other. 

The  time  will  therefore  come  when  one  hundred  and  fifty 
millions  of  men  will  be  living  in  North  America,^  equal  in  con- 
dition, the  progeny  of  one  race,  owing  their  origin  to  the  same 
cause,  and  preserving  the  same  civilization,  the  same  language, 
the  same  religion,  the  same  habits,  the  same  manners,  and  im- 
bued with  the  same  opinions,  propagated  under  the  same  forms. 
The  rest  is  uncertain,  but  this  is  certain ;  and  it  is  a  fact  new  to 
the  world — a  fact  fraught  with  such  portentous  consequences 
as  to  baffle  the  efforts  even  of  the  imagination. 

There  are,  at  the  present  time,  two  great  nations  in  the  world 
which  seem  to  tend  towards  the  same  end,  although  they  started 
from  diflferent  points :  I  allude  to  the  Russians  and  the  Ameri- 
cans. Both  of  them  have  grown  up  unnoticed ;  and  whilst  the 
attention  of  mankind  was  directed  elsewhere,  they  have  sud- 
denly assumed  a  most  prominent  place  amongst  the  nations ; 
and  the  world  learned  their  existence  and  their  greatness  at  al- 
most the  same  time. 

All  other  nations  seem  to  have  nearly  reached  their  natural 
limits,  and  only  to  be  charged  with  the  maintenance  of  their 
power ;  but  these  are  still  in  the  act  of  growth ;  r  all  the  others 
are  stopped,  or  continue  to  advance  with  extreme  difficulty; 
these  are  proceeding  with  ease  and  with  celerity  along  a  path 
to  which  the  human  eye  can  assign  no  term.  The  American 
struggles  against  the  natural  obstacles  which  oppose  him ;  the 
adversaries  of  the  Russian  are  men ;  the  former  combats  the 
wilderness  and  savage  life ;  the  latter,  civilization  with  all  its 
weapons  and  its  arts :  the  conquests  of  the  one  are  therefore 
gained  by  the  ploughshare ;  those  of  the  other  by  the  sword. 


1/  <". 


9  This  would  be  a  population  propor- 
tionate to  that  of  Europe,  taken  at  a 
mean  rate  of  410  inhabitants  to  the 
square  league. 


r  Russia  is  the  country  in  the  Old 
World  in  which  population  increases 
most  rapidly  in  proportion. 


y 


1 
•■(1 


442 


DE  TOCQUEVILLE 


The  Anglo- American  relies  upon  personal  interest  to  accom-, 
plish  his  ends,  and  gives  free  scope  to  the  unguided  exertions 
and  common-sense  of  the  citizens ;  the  Russian  centres  all  the 
authority  of  society  in  a  single  arm :  the  principal  instrument 
of  the  former  is  freedom ;  of  the  latter  servitude.  Their  start- 
ing-point is  different,  and  their  courses  are  not  the  same ;  yet 
each  of  them  seems  to  be  marked  out  by  the  will  of  Heaven 
to  sway  the  destinies  of  half  the  globe. 


/ 


\ 


II 


)  accom-, 
exertions 
es  all  the 
strument 
eir  start- 
,me;  yet 
Heaven 


W 


s-1 


i 


■y^. 


